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ST. JOHN BERCHIVLANS, S J., 

THE students' MODEL. 



-^W' 



THE 



¥lm Saints of*lB< 



St. John Berchmans, SJ.; St. Peter Claver, SJ. 
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, S J. ; 

AND 

The Seven Sainted Founders of the Servites. 



I^EV, FRANCIS GOLD IE, S.J., 
REV, FATHER SCOLA, S,y., Etc, 



/ 



3^jeprintje& is 2lvran 



authors. 




New York, TSwi^SWjj^^^HfCAGO : 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 

-vei:>T- — __ 



THBl4Biuunr 

WAflUIINIfUii 






Copyright, 1888, by Benziger Brothers. 



CONTENTS. 



St. John Berchmans. . . - - 9 

I. Early Days. (1599-1616.) ^ - * 9 

II. Religious Life in Belgium. (1616-1618.) 24 

III. St. John Berchmans at Rome. (1618-1621.) 30 

IV. A Precious Death. (1621.) - - - 43 
St. Peter Claver. 51 

I. The Preparation. - - - - 51 

II. The Apostolate. . - . - 66 

III. The Reward. - - - - - 80 . 

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez. - - - loi 

I. Life in the World. - - - - loi 

II. Life in Religion. - - - - 115 

III. His End in Peace. - - - - 141 

The Seven Sainted Founders of the Servites. 151 

I. Introduction. - - - - - 151 

II. Seven Apparitions. - - - 154 

III. Across the Alps. 159 



0/ the Society of Jesus : 

THE students' MODEL. 
(1599-162I.) 



BY THE REV. FRANCIS GOLDIE, S. J. 



I. Early Days. (1599-1616.) 




N a quiet town of Belgium, near the 
frontiers of Holland, during the last 
years of our Queen Elizabeth, there 
was living an honest master-shoemaker, named 
John Charles Berchmans. The terrible war 
of the Low Countries was still raging, and 
Diest, the home of the shoemaker, had felt 
its effects. It was not a war of conquest, 
nor of invasion ; but it was a civil and relig- 
ious strife, fostered by foreign powers, by 
England and by France, and made doubly 
terrible by the cruelty of Spaniard and fanatic 
Reformer. But Elizabeth was growing old, 
and Henry IV. of France was now a Catholic, 



10 The Xti.' Saints of iSS8. 

while Spain, exhausted with the long struggle, 
wished earnestly to bring it to an end. So 
peace, like the grey dawn after a stormy 
night, was comiilg up over the sacked towns 
and blood-stained plains of the battle-field of 
Europe. 

So too, all over Christendom, there was a 
turning of that portentous tide which had 
risen and risen, until it seemed as if it would 
have engulfed even the eternal Rock of Peter 
and the Church which is founded upon it. 
The holiness of the Church, one of the visible 
marks of her divine origin, had been sadly 
obscured by the worldly lives of prelates and 
of princes. The corruption of the lives of 
men who should have been examples to their 
fellows, had given some grounds to the wide- 
spread revolt against the Truth, by giving to 
it a decent pretext and a taking watchword — 
" Reform." Xow the winter was nearly past, 
and as in a Canadian spring, so in every 
portion of God's garden, flowers of exquisite 
holiness were breaking forth, showing that 
His Hand was still with His people, and that 
His Spirit was still upon them. There were 
saintly bishops and saintly princes, saints 
amono^ the lowlv and in the cloisters : there 



SL John Berckmans. ii 

were great awakeners of the religious spirit 
throughout Europe, and great missioners to 
carry that Faith to pagan lands which had 
been lost to so many Christian realms, and to 
win for the Church fresh continents and fresh 
conquests. There were prodigies of Christian 
charity raising up again the hospitals and the 
houses for orphan and outcast, and giants of 
mighty learning, to reclaim for the truth the 
empire of men's minds. 

But the saint of whom I am going to speak 
to you was none of these, and yet one of the 
many glories of the Catholic reaction in the 
17th century, and one, too, who had and has 
still a mighty work to do. Then, as now, and 
as ever will be, just as the harvest depends in 
great part upon the sowing, so on the training 
up of the young, as is known by friend and 
foe alike, depends the spiritual future of the 
world. If the grammar schools of the Tudors, 
which took the place of the monastic schools 
in England, and the prohibition by penal laws 
of Catholic teaching, robbed our country of 
its faith, they were the seminaries and the 
colleges of the teaching orders which played 
the chief part both in the revival of that faith 
throughout Catholic Europe, and in its exten- 



12 The New Saints of 1888. 

sion through the vast extent of the Eastern 
and Western Indies. So too, as the choicest 
fruits of these new nurseries of faith and 
learning, God raised up St. Stanislaus, St. 
Aloysius Gonzaga, and St. John Berchmans, 
to be models for the youth of later days, ^ 
amidst the shipwreck of faith and the break- 
ing up of morals. 

1599. On the 13th of March, a child was 
born to John Charles Berchmans and to his 
pious wife, at the sign of " the Great and 
Little Moon," in a room which is now-a-days 
kept as a holy place. The parish church, 
which, like the churches of our land, had been 
sacked by Protestant hands, was the scene of 
his baptism, and to him was given the name 
of the great precursor, which was that, too, of 
his father — John. His mother, who, like the 
mother of his glorious patron, was called 
Elizabeth, looked upon each of her children 
as a sacred trust from God, and forestalled 
the dawning of their reason by careful re- 
ligious training. Her little boy, spite of his 
quick temper and precocious mind, grew up 
as gentle and as guileless as a lamb, and 
early shared his time between the school and 
the altar. The schoolmaster congratulated 



St. John Berchmans. 13 

the father on a child of such promise and of 
such goodness. And so much did the good 
shoemaker prize the innocence of this pre- 
cious treasure that, spite of hard times and 
the long illness of his poor wife, which was a 
source of great expense to him, he put John 
to board with the good old parish priest, a 
Premonstratensian Canon, Father Emmerick, 
who had a number of boys under his care in 
training for the priesthood. Many a well- 
to-do burgher of Diest would gladly have 
received little John into his house to be 
a companion and an example to his own 
children. But John Charles feared for his 
innocence in the luxury of a rich home, just 
as he was anxious to keep his four boys out 
of the streets, and away from the perils of his 
workshop and its apprentices, and so sent 
them all away to safe hands. By a sort of 
holy instinct our saint loved to be alone* 
and shrunk from other companions, spending 
his time in study or in prayer. Prayer easily 
became with him a passion, and love of his 
sacramental Lord so took possession of his 
soul that one day he begged his confessor to 

* "He went up into the mountain alone to pray." — 
St. Matth. xiv. 23. 



14 The New Saints of 1888, 

admit him to his first Communion. There 
and then he had his general confession all 
ready, and on the very next Sunday he was 
admitted to receive from Father Emmerick's 
trembling hands his Lord and Love. The 
desire to be admitted to a higher privilege, 
to be a priest of the living and life-giving 
Victim, had already taken its place in his 
heart ; and one reason why John was so glad 
to enter the old priest's house was because it 
was the first step to the realization of his 
hopes, and because he could wear, as did his 
other companions, the clerical dress. And 
living now so close to the Tabernacle, his 
love to the hidden Dweller therein only grew 
the stronger. To serve mass was his great 
delight. Nor was that other love less con- 
spicuous — the consequence of his love of 
Jesus — his affection for the mother of his 
Lord, and his own heavenly mother ; rather it 
was the great characteristic of our saint. 
Looking down over Diest, on a height which 
seems all the higher as it rises out of the 
Flemish flats, stands the sanctuary of our 
Lady of Montaigu — the "■ peaked hill," — or 
as the Flemings characteristically call it — 
"the hill of crutches," — so many being hung 



1 



St. John Berckmans, 1 5 

up there, signs of marvellous cures. The 
star-spangled dome and stately tower at its 
side were not yet built, but for many years 
the miraculous image in the oak tree had 
attracted crowds of rich and poor, soldiers 
and statesmen, archdukes and peasants. Even 
when quite little, John used often to go 
fasting along the three miles to pray before 
her statue. Nor was this love of Mary a mere 
devotion of the fancy ; it called forth, as true 
love always does, the spirit of sacrifice. 
Every Saturday he put aside some portion of 
his homely meal in her honor. And it seems 
certain that, when but a child, he vowed his 
virginity to Our Lady. More than once in 
the religious dramas, so popular in those 
days and so profitable, the part of a hero of 
chastity was naturally given to our little 
Saint ; and when, in the role of Daniel, he 
denounced the guilty elders, he was seen to 
tremble with emotion and indignation. There 
was no priggishness, nor air of superiority 
about the boy, but he was always so simple, 
so equable in temper, so ready to oblige, so 
kind, that he was the favorite of all, though 
quite unconscious of their preference. 

A cloud was gathering on the bright blue 



1 6 The New Saints of iS88, 

of his happy Ufe, which threatened to shut 
him off, and forever^ from his one ambition. 
John's father was able no longer to pay for 
his boy at the Canon's ; and he insisted that 
it was absolutely necessary, with a sick wife 
and his children growing up^ that John should 
give up his studies and take to some remu- 
nerative trade to help his family. 

For a moment John was stunned with the 
news, but he threw himself on his knees 
before his father, and turning first to him 
and then to his poor mother, implored to be 
allowed to follow God's call to the Church. 
He was quite willing, he said, to live on 
bread and water, and he promised to be no 
further charge to his parents, if only he 
might continue his studies. Another good 
priest of Diest offered him a home and bed 
and board for the moment ; and a few days 
after there came a neighbor from Mechlin to 
say that one of the officials of the cathedral 
of that city was on the look-out for a servant 
boy, who^ as was often the way in those days, 
would wait upon him and the boarders he had 
in his house, and go with them to school. 

So, at the age of fifteen, our Saint went to 
the precentor of Mechlin, Canon Froymont, 



SL John Berckmans. 17 

who very soon found out what a treasure he 
had got in John. He was so ready, so intel- 
Hgent, so attentive to his work^ so modest, so 
rehgious, and yet withal so gay, that the other 
cathedral dignitaries never thought a dinner 
was what it ought to be, unless our Saint was 
there to serve it. He was mother and father 
to three little boys whom the Canon left en- 
tirely to his charge. Two young men^ pupils 
in the precentor's house^ were afterwards to 
follow John to the Society of Jesus, and one 
of them declared that, having been a Protes- 
tant, he owed his conversion to the bright 
example of virtue shown to him by the ser- 
vant boy. Even Canon Froymont was de- 
lighted to make Berchmans his companion 
when out a-walking. With the boarders, St. 
John used at first to attend the classes at the 
archiepiscopal seminary. But when, in 16 15, 
the Fathers of the Society of Jesus opened a 
college in Mechlin, in the old palace of 
Charles V., John with others of Froymont's 
pupils went to the new College. He was 
admitted at once to the highest class and 
distinguished himself by his brilliant success, 
but still more by his industry, his lovableness, 
and his unusual piety. He very soon was 



1 8 The New . Saints of 1888. 

numbered in the lists of the Sodality of Our 
Lady, a confraternity which is always com- 
posed of the pick of the students of the 
Jesuit colleges. His love of Our Lady made 
him as pleased at being a member, as his 
companions were proud to have such a model 
sodalist. 

Meanwhile a new horizon was opening out 
before the mind of our holy student. He 
had long made up his mind to be a priest ; 
but as the time went on, while reading the 
letters of St. Jerome, so full of brilliant pic- 
tures of the follies and dangers of the world, 
he determined to escape from its snares for 
good and all, by becoming a religious. St. 
Aloysius had died at the Roman College in 
15 91, and his life was shortly after published 
in Belgium. St. John read it, and not with- 
out a struggle, of which his humility was 
probably the cause, he recognized a clear 
vocation to become a member of that Society 
of which Gonzaga was so bright a glory. 
But the idea was neither lightly received, nor 
hastily carried out. He carefully weighed it 
in the balance of the sanctuary by earnest 
prayer and by counsel with his spiritual guides. 
With some money, which the canon had given 



St, John Berchmans, 19 

to John, he bestowed alms on the poor, got 
some masses said before the ancient and 
venerated statue of the " Seat of Wisdom '* in 
the University Church of Louvain, and of- 
fered the rest to Our Lady of Montaigu. The 
answer came with such clearness, that, with 
his confessor's leave, he bound himself by 
vow to follow the call, as had done St. Stanis- 
laus^ come what might to hinder him. In- 
deed, he needed all his courage to carry out 
this purpose. In a beautiful letter to his 
parents he told them *^ how now nearly for 
three or four months Our Lord has been most 
evidently knocking at the door of my heart. 
I at first kept it shut against Him. But when 
I saw that, whether at my studies, or on my 
walks, or whatever I might be doing, I always 
had before me the need to settle my future 
state of life, after many a Communion, and 
many a good work, I have come to the con- 
clusion, yes, I am resolved, to serve our dear 
Lord, with His grace, in a religious life. It 
is in some way hard, I admit, for friends and 
relatives to give up their children. But what 
would they do if our dear Lord — long may 
He spare them — were to call them to Himself ? 
Sometimes, too, I keep thinking in my hearty 



20 The New Saints of 1888, 

if I saw before me^ on the one hand, father, 
mother, sister, etc., and on the other God 
Our Lord with His — and^ as I trust, my own 
— Blessed Mother, and the first were saying 
to me : — ' Dear child, stay with us, w^e beg 
you by the weariness and fatigues we have 
borne for you, etc/ : and Jesus Christ on His 
side were to say to me, * I have been born 
and scourged, and crowned with thorns, and 
last of all have died on a cross for you ! See 
here ]\Iy five holy Wounds ! Have I not 
endured all this for you ? Do you not know 
that I have fed your soul with My Sacred 
Body, and slaked its thirst with My Precious 
Blood ? And now will you prove so un- 
grateful to Me ? ' When I think of this, my 
dear parents, my heart sets me in such a 
flame that, were it possible, I would this very 
moment fly to religion, and my heart and my 
soul will never be at rest till they have found 
their beloved Master. 

'' But you will say : ^ It is too soon as yet. 
Wait till you have taken your degrees. ' I ask 
you, if a poor man were to come a-begging at 
your door, and you really were willing to give 
him something, and he were to say, ' I will 
come for it in a year or two ; ' — he could not 



St, John Berchmans. 21 

be sure you would give it to him then, — would 
you not think him a fool and a madman ? 
Are we not all beggars in God's sight ? He 
is pleased now^ after much prayer, out of His 
goodness, to give me the best of alms^ a voca- 
tion to religion and to the Society of Jesus, 
the hammer of all heresies, the vessel of 
virtue and perfection ; and shall I tread 
under foot this grace of my dear Lord, and 
contemn it ? It is doubtful whether Our Lord 
would allow it to last for two years more. 
And may be I should hear from Him : * I 
know you not/ So now, with my whole heart, 
I offer myself to Jesus Christ to fight under 
His colors. I hope you will not be so unrea- 
sonable as to oppose Him ; but as, as I have 
read in history, the Egyptians offered their 
children to the crocodile, which they looked 
on as a god, and, while it was eating them up, 
the parents made high festival — so, too, I 
hope you will rejoice, as they did, and praise 
God and thank Him that your son should be 
found worthy, not to be given to God, for he 
does not belong to you, but to be restored to 
Him. I commend myself to your good 
prayers, that our dear Lord may grant to me 
perseverance to the end of my life, and to you 



22 The New Saints of 1888. 

with me, hereafter, eternal life. — John Berch- 

MANS." 

This is but one of the many beautiful 
letters, preserved to us of our Saint, in which 
he "is not dead but speaking." To those 
who do not know the force of affection and 
the power it has to blind the judgment, such 
a letter addressed to such parents could 
surely have but one reply. But our Saint's 
father, like many another parent, would not 
hear of his son's entering religion. He went 
over to Mechlin, and failing to move John, 
roundly rated John's confessor with having 
put the idea into the youth's head. He urged 
that, after having spent so much money upon 
his education, he could not sacrifice the 
support which he looked for at his hands. 
The confessor, who had encountered similar 
difficulties from his own father — a shoemaker 
like Berchmans — answered with such good 
reasons that he seemed to have gained his 
point. But it Was not so. John's mother 
had a relation in the Franciscan house in 
Mechlin, and his father asked him to consult 
those religious on the matter of his call. He 
obeyed, and though his mother had engaged 
the community to do all they could on her 



St. John Berchmans, 23 

behalf, the clear replies John made to all their 
objections convinced them that the call was 
from God. His relation, however, was not so 
ready to give in, and persecuted John with 
his repeated attacks, coming again and again 
to the precentor's, till at last the young man 
took the friar firmly by the arm, and showed 
him quietly to the door. 

His parents still hoped against hope, but, 
to a fresh appeal for delay, our Saint wrote a 
short and apostolic letter to say that in 
another fortnight he was resolved to enter the 
novitiate. His father would have wished him 
to come over to Diest to say good-bye, but 
good Canon Froymont was anxious to spare 
the boy further heart-rending, and so John 
wrote to invite his parents over to Mechlin. 
It was a painful parting. The cordwainer, as 
a last effort, told John he must not look to 
him for a groat to enable him to carry out his 
purpose. " See, father/' was his answer, '' if 
the very clothes I have on kept me back, I 
would strip them off, and follow Christ like 
the young man who cast away his linen cloth." 



24 The New Saints of 1888. 

II. Religious Life in Belgium* (1616- 
1618). 

A part of the old Palace of Charles V., of 
which a small portion is still standing, served 
at once for the college and the novice house 
of the Society at Mechlin. Thither, on a 
Saturday, on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, 
Sept. 24, 1616^ with two of his companions, 
one of whom was to enter with him, went 
John, unable to control his joy at the near 
realization of all his desires. "O brother," 
he said to the one who was a postulant like 
himself, ^' may we live together forever in the 
Society in heaven, as together we are entering 
for God's sake into His Society on earth ! " 
There was a lay-brother busy working in the 
garden. " There," said John, *^ how can we 
make a better start than here at once by the 
practice of charity and humility ? " So they 
set to to help the brother until the Rector 
and some other Fathers approached to welcome 
the new comers. 

A hundred or so of many nations and 
various ages were within those holy walls, 
being trained to the high perfection de- 
manded by the rules and constitutions, then 



Sl John Berchmans, 25. 

so fresh from the pen of St, Ignatius of 
Loyola. And more like two hundred came 
and went during the two years our Saint 
passed in the school of holiness. But far 
ahead of them all shot our holy novice, so 
that^ such was his diligence in God's service, 
in a short while he surpassed even those who. 
had been there for twenty-four months in his' 
exactness and in his fervor. They all looked 
upon him as an angel in the flesh. And 
though he began with the firm resolution of 
being a saint, and, as he said, " a great saint 
too ; " though he carried out his resolution 
in real earnest, by stern and constant self- 
restraint, and all the mortification which his 
superior would permit, he was ever so bright 
and cheerful that he got the name of Brother 
Hilarius, or the holy Hilarius. 

The secret of his rapid progress was his 
care in little things, or, as he put it, " not so 
much the doing great things, as doing well 
whatever one is told.** Whether it was 
learning French, of which the young Fleming 
knew not a word when he arrived, or trim- 
ming the lamps — a work painful and dirty, 
ambitioned by him probably because St. 
Aloysius had sought for it — or preparing his 



26- The New Saints of 1888. 

meditation, all was done as work should be 
done for God, with all possible painstaking, 
in the best way, leaving nothing untried to 
secure success. 

He was never known to violate any rule or 
approved custom of the house ; so that a 
novice who afterwards became one of the 
literary glories of Flanders declared that 
no study of his rules, no prayerful meditation 
upon them ever moved him so much to their 
practice as the faithfulness of St. John in 
their observance. His excellence was not 
negative. His past success at school, the 
proofs he gave in the novitiate of remarkable 
ability and of clear-headed judgment, all 
showed that his talents were far above the 
average. He had a very marked character. 
But so completely did he keep himself in 
hand, so firm and constant his guard over 
himself, that in word, in action, in his outer 
man, Berchmans appeared to be faultless. 
Neither his superior nor the companions with 
whom he lived could find in him anything 
blameworthy. On one occasion he begged 
his noviqe-master to subject him to a humili- 
ation, customary as part of the training 
of the novitiate, of being told his faults 



SL John Berchmans. 27 

by nis religious brethren. They were 
ordered to jot down anything they might 
have noticed. But when their notes were 
sent in not one of the hundred young men 
had found anything to say against St. John. 
He had not been in religion a year before he 
was given a post of no small responsibility, 
that of porter, a sort of adjutant to the 
novice-master, to whom was entrusted the 
duty of carrying out all the details of domes- 
tic duty and of seeing to the regularity and 
order of the noviceship. This very elevation 
only made his humility and charity more 
conspicuous. If for any breach of discipline 
he was told to enjoin a penance on the 
offender, he begged to be allowed to bear the 
punishment himself ; nor did he ever report 
an offence without first seeking light from his 
Divine Master in the tabernacle. 

His devotion to his Lord in the Blessed 
Sacrament was a natural outcome of his 
ardent love of God, and this love was conta- 
gious. Again and again during the day^ at 
any leisure moment, he was to be found 
kneeling, absorbed and motionless, in the 
presence of his Lord. Holy Communion was 
his greatest happiness and he hungered after 



28 The New Saints of 1888. 

^that food of angels. The love of Mary, 
"which had possessed his soul from earliest 
childhood, of her to whom he owed his voca- 
' tion, grew swiftly in the blessed atmosphere 
■ of John's life of prayer and self-denial. Her 
name was ever on his lips, and never did he 
join his brethren in recreation but he spoke 
of her praises. He got others to become 
the apostles of her honor. Then, as in after 
life, the high privilege of her Immaculate 
Conception attracted very specially his devo- 
tion. To his spiritual guides every secret of 
his soul was manifest, and it is recorded of 
one of them how deeply humiliated he felt 
in the presence of this revelation of youth- 
ful holiness ; a holiness never satisfied with 
itself, but ever, like the great St. Francis 
Xavier, crying out, ''More, O Lord! yet 
more ! " 

Spite of the extroardinary insight the Saint 
possessed into his own heart, spite of the 
magnifying glass with which his humility 
enlarged his seeming defects, his confessors 
imagined themselves in face of an angel 
rather than a creature subject to human frail- 
ties. Yet all the while so full was he of his 
own nothingness, that he was forced to confess 



SL John Berchinans, 29 

that he had really little to fear from the rob- 
ber and bane of all merit — self-conceit and 
pride. After but one year of probation St. 
John had been admitted to the privilege of 
binding himself to God by private vows of 
poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

1618. On the 25th of September, joyfully 
and with a great heart, he publicly took the 
vows of the Society of Jesus, and, as far as 
he could, offered himself forever to his good 
Lord in the Society to which he had been • 
called. He left the world, but the world or 
what are dearest in it had left him. His 
mother had gone to her reward shortly after 
he began his novitiate ; and his father, who 
would have wished to have followed the ex- 
ample of his holy son, as did another of his 
children some eight years later, was prevented 
from so doing by the care of his family, and 
entered the ranks of the secular clergy, hav- 
ing been ordained a priest a few months be- 
fore St. John finished his novitiate. 

A new phase of life began for our Saint. 
His soul had been devoured by a desire to do 
and suffer for his Lord, and to take his part 
in the great struggle with evil under the ban- 
ner of truth. His daily prayer was that he 



30 The New Saints of 1888. 

might be fitted for whatever work for God 
the Society should ask at his hands. And 
now the answer came that he was to go to 
Rome to prosecute his philosophical studies 
at the Gregorian University, the Alma Mater 
of the Society, or, as it is best known, the 
Roman College. St. John wrote to his father, 
asking him to come over to meet him, and to 
say good-bye, but he learnt from one of his 
school-fellows the sad news that his well-be- 
loved parent had died a week, before; — nor 
had any one broken to him the sad news. 
This made the sharp trial all the more hard to 
bear. 

He commended his orphaned brotfiers and 
sisters warmly to their relations, and' to the 
good precentor, and then, like St. Ignatius 
and St. Stanislaus, went his way to the Holy 
City. 

III. St, John Berchmans at Rome. 
(1618-1621). 

1618. Our Saint, then nineteen years of 
age, set out at the close of October on his 
long journey and on foot, through France and 
Italy, with another young Belgian religious of 
his own age. The fatigues of the^jo'rfrhey 



SL John Berchmans, 31 

were forgotten in the delight of going to 
Rome, there to see the Vicar of Jesus Christ, 
and the General of the Society, and to pray 
at the tombs of the great Apostles and of St. 
Ignatius and St. Aloysius. There was, too, 
the hope, that at the headquarters of his 
Order he would more easily obtain the long- 
desired order to go to China or some other 
heathen and mxartyr-haunted mission. Where- 
ever he passed, St. John left an undying 
memory of his wise and holy conversation. 
It was on Christmas Eve that the dome and 
towers of Loreto came up before the pilgrims, 
on a slope that must have recalled to him the 
loved sanctuary of Montaigu. What a joy to 
hear the midnight Mass in presence of that 
lowly roof which had sheltered Mary and the 
Incarnate Word ! The good folk who 
crowded the spacious basilica gazed in wonder 
at the worn and transfigured face of the 
young Fleming, as amidst all the vast throng 
he knelt out the long service, motionless and 
rapt in prayer, and they thought him another 
Aloysius Gonzaga, or some prince in disguise, 
come from afar to spend the Christmas 
within the Holy House. 

The last night of the year, when all Rome 



32 The New Saints of 1888, 

throngs to join in the Te Deum in the stately 
church of the Gesu, the two way-farers were 
welcomed with a fatherly embrace by Mercius 
Vitelleschi, the General of the Society of 
Jesus. Berchmans spent a day or two in the 
house attached to the Gesu, now some 
Government offices of the Italian kingdom, 
the home of many a saint. Some novices 
who were there to wait at table, when they 
went home to their novitiate of St. Andrew 
on the Quirinal, assured their novice-master, 
that the young Belgian just arrived was a 
portent of holiness. 

On January 2d, St. John took up his 
quarters in the vast Roman College, in a 
room once occupied by St. Aloysius, who 
had died in the infirmary there, nearly a 
quarter of a century before. But many there 
were who still remembered the angel of the 
Gonzagas, and the common feeling was that 
he had come back again amongst them, in the 
person of Berchmans, and better than he in 
one external point, in his great amiability of 
manner. Some there were who thought that 
this bloom of virtue must soon wear off, and 
that it was merely a novice's piety, more on 
the surface than deeply rooted. But those 



St, John Berchmans, 33 

who came to know him more closely soon 
formed a different judgment. " Do not spoil 
my little Fleming," said the Father Minister 
— the second in command — to young Oliva, 
the future general of the Order, '' for he is, I 
assure you, good, good, very good ; nor will 
his virtues/* he added, ^^ prove to be false." 
It is fortunate for us that Father Cepari, the 
confessor and biographer of .St. Aloysius, 
was rector of the Roman College during the 
time of St. John. From him no secret of 
the Saint's soul was hidden, and he knew 
him thoroughly within and without ; and the 
biography which he has left us of Berchmans 
deserves the praise of the late Father Faber 
of being ^' perfect in its way." 

Men of great eminence in learning and 
holiness were amongst the contemporaries of 
St. John in the College, both as teachers and 
learners ; and amongst the members who 
thronged the schools were students of every 
nation, many of whom in after life were to 
hold high positions in Church or State, or to 
spend themselves in the missions at home 
and abroad. There were Ward, Ann, Vava- 
sour, Constable, Pole, Harvey, and Huddle- 
ston, Walpole, Dormer, Neville, and .Court- 



34 The New Saints of 1888. 

enay, Salvin, Rockwood, and other good 
names, among the English students who sat 
on the benches of the college while Berch- 
mans was there, and who carried the memory 
of his holiness to our persecuted land. His 
light was not put under a bushel, but plain 
for all to see ; and everyone who came across 
him, or knew him however slightly, was 
struck by the radiance of heavenly modesty 
that beamed from his bright and engaging 
face, so placid yet so intelligent, spite of its 
ever down-cast eyes. 

Though so highly gifted, St. John spared 
no pains to succeed in his studies. With 
perfect order and method unflinchingly ad- 
hered to, with careful husbanding of every 
moment of time, he stirred himself up to 
work by the thought that men who study 
simply for honor's sake do it with such a 
will, and "shall I," he said, '^ be less jeal- 
ous of God's glory than they are of their 
own ? " He lost no chance of self-improve- 
ment, and learnt to speak Italian, as he had 
learnt French, with a correctness and elegance 
rarely found in a foreigner. He thought of 
obtaining leave to spend some time in the 
English College, and then in the German 



St. John Berchmans, 35 

College, to perfect himself in the languages of 
both before returning to Flanders, feeling 
the truth of the saying, that '' the man who 
knows several languages is worth as many 
men as the number of tongues he has ac- 
quired." But these off-studies, these am- 
bitious schemes for a future which never 
came, did not distract him from his great 
work ; and so successful was he in his philos- 
ophy that, at the end of his course, he was 
selected to defend against all comers in public 
tourney the whole field of that vast subject. 
It was a sight to see that modest, bashful 
young man, with skilful parry and thrust, 
with the .happiest memory, with keenest 
analysis, meet the many adversaries who took 
up arguments against him, and win applause 
from all by his brilliant defence of the thesis 
entrusted to him. 

But higher far was Berchmans* ambition to 
be a saint than to be a scholar. No care, no 
painstaking, no foresight was too great to 
ensure this noblest end. His fidelity from 
childhood, the jealous watchfulness of his 
parents, had enabled him in the secret of his 
heart to thank God for the greatest of His 
gifts, for having preserved unstained by 



36 The New Saints of 1888. 

grievous sin the white robe of baptism. But 
not content with so high a favor, he hedged 
round his treasure with a hedge of thorns. 
Spite of a deHcate constitution, and of the 
wear of a cUmate not his own, and of studies 
pursued with such ardor, he refused every 
pleasure to his senses ; and unable to do the 
penance he desired, he closed his eyes to the 
great religious pageants, to the splendid 
progresses and pomps of the centre of Cath- 
olic life and worship. He practised the most 
rigorous poverty, refusing to keep anything 
but what was strictly necessary. He bore the 
keen shafts of the short but piercing winter, 
and the oppressive heat of the Roman sum- 
mer, never seeking any alleviation, any excep- 
tion in clothing or food. His extraordinary 
and unchanging fidelity to every regulation, 
to every authorized practice, his prompt and 
punctual obedience to every order of those 
over him were, as he said, his most severe 
penance — '•' My greatest penance is common 
life.'* And no example of others, no human 
respect, no natural weariness, ever betrayed 
him into the smallest breach of the many 
rules which surrounded him, or into the 
smallest violation of the wish of any superior. 






St, John Berchmans. 2>1 

There was no pettiness or scrupulosity, no 
straining at trifles and being careless about 
things of importance, but he saw that to him, 
called as he was by God to that particular 
form of life, each rule, each expression of the 
will of those to whom His Eternal Lord had 
delegated His authority was an expression of 
His all-holy Will, and therefore the one thing 
worth doing. " The more you love your 
rule, the more will you make progress/' was 
one of his sayings. This was the motive of 
all his obedience, and his fixed law was " to 
find God ever in his superiors.'^ 

Of his love of poverty we have already 
spoken, and of his innocence. But upon that 
bridal dress he wrought " inaestimabiles mar- 
garitas," he broidered it over with priceless 
pearls. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in a letter on 
obedience, which is one of the most perfect 
treatises on that most difficult and unworldly 
virtue, quotes St. Leo, who says, '^ Nothing is 
hard to the humble, nothing difficult to the 
meek ; " and this is merely the teaching of the 
greater Master, " Learn of Me, for I am meek 
and humble of heart." In the last year but 
one of Brother John's life he devoted all his 
powers to acquire the virtue of humility. 



38 Tlie New Saints of 1888. 

** Contempt of self is a short cut to perfection, 
and it causes great peace of soul/' is one of 
the echoes of the teachings of holy writers 
which he had made his own. He always, 
without affectation as without ceremony, chose, 
when he could, the last and lowest place. He 
took every opportunity to do humble and 
menial offices for others. He looked upon 
himself as admitted to his Order out of pure 
charity, and so took everything that was done 
to him in that spirit. When one Holy Week 
he had been sent out to help at the services 
in the Jesuit Church in Frascati, and the road 
was heavy and miry, he carried off his broth- 
ers' shoes and cleaned and brushed them for 
them. He was fond of serving the community 
at table, and he watched his chance, when 
any happened to come in late, to stay behind 
and to see to their wants. He was very fond, 
too, of spending the time of recreation with 
the lay-brothers, and, when his turn came 
round to distribute the broken meat to the 
poor at the door, it was to him a high holi- 
day. 

Cardinal Maurite, of the ducal House of 
Savoy, cam-e in great state one day to th« 
College, and was welcomed by a polyglot 



SL John Berchmans, 39 

acaaemy of set speech-making, in which 
twenty-seven religious of various nationahties, 
each in his own tongue, held forth on a 
theme suggested by the 8th chapter of the 
Book of Wisdom. John was chosen to speak 
in Flemish, and to him fell, strangely enough, 
if it had not been especially selected for him, 
to develop the text: "And I shall be ad- 
mired in the sight of the mighty." The 
moment his part was done, he made his way 
back to the sub-minister, and asked for some 
work in the kitchen, and when he was told 
there was none, he went off to pray in the 
church. Just as at Mechlin, he had the 
charge of the lamps for the various passages, 
no light task, but a labor of love, because, as 
remarked, obtained by St. Aloysius. Charity 
was the virtue St. John had chosen as the one 
specially to be aimed at the last year of his 
life. Always blind to the failings of others, 
he noted down the various points which 
pleased him in those around him. He had a 
life-long and special affection for any Father 
who ever, in any way, had been his superior. 
But none, even of the four brothers who in 
succession shared his room with him, could 
ever say too much of his thoughtful kindness. 



40 The New Saints of 1888, 

of his fear of any way inconveniencing them, 
his ingenuity of taking upon himself any 
work that was to be done, making the beds, 
or sweeping, or tidying the room. Though 
free from any tinge of affectation and with 
rather less than more of the ItaHan poHte- 
ness, he showed constantly a genuine love of 
all his brethren, new or old, without any 
distinction — unless in favor of the sick, the 
suffering, or the lowly. He was specially 
fond of the society of the simple lay-brothers. 
He was ever at the beck and call of all. He 
had the care of the men-servants, not lay- 
brothers^ who helped in the work of the 
house, and he was unsparing in his watchful- 
ness over them and in bringing them regu- 
larly to the sacraments. 

But all this beautiful life took its rise from 
that hidden source known only to those, and 
even to them only in part, to whom Berch- 
mans, as by rule obliged, unveiled the hidden- 
most depths of his soul ; a source known 
now even better to us by the notes written by 
him for his own use, which escaped destruc- 
tion at his hands only by his sudden illness. 
As he knew well, prayer is the first condition 
of grace, of progress, of perseverance^ and sp, 



Sf, John Berchmans. 41 

whilst for God's glory he threw himself &o 
thoroughly into his studies, he valued, above 
all success in the schools, success in the art 
of prayer. St. Ignatius, a master in that 
difficult work, has left careful directions how 
to light the fire, how to guard it when lit, 
and how to fan it into flame, and these 
directions became part of the daily life of our 
Saint, so faithfully did he observe them and 
make them his own. His hour of prayer in 
the morning made its warmth felt in his 
frequent communions, in his daily Mass, in 
every action of the well filled day. You could 
not speak to him, but, naturally, the current 
of his thoughts showed itself in his words. 
God and the things of God were the favorite 
topics of his conversation ; and even great 
theologians, and learned professors, and men 
of extraordinary holiness, the men of choice 
of the Society, then living in Rome, loved to 
share his company in order to profit by his 
conversation. As an arrow to its mark, so 
naturally and necessarily to the Blessed 
Sacrament was attracted all the love of John's 
inflamed heart. He loved to serve Mass ; 
he loved to snatch a spare moment from his 
studies to go before the Tabernacle. Busy 



42 The Ne-cv Saints of 1888, 

though he was, he gave up the whole of his 
mornings after communion to purely spiritual 
work. Often so enchained was he, that, 
when the time of the visit to the Blessed 
Sacrament was over, his companions had to 
rouse him to the memory of things arouad 
him. Yet he never allowed his devotions CD 
make him forget the smallest duty when 
taking part at the altar in any public cere- 
mony, though his devotion and reverence 
were not the less. When the relics of St. 
Aloysius were being solemnly translated to a 
chapel of Our Lady, in the old Church of the 
CoJlege, St. John assisted as acolyte. A 
venerable Father who had known Gonzaga 
said to his companion, ''This youth seems 
another Aloysius." And we read of a gentle- 
man so attracted by the ardent expression 
and fixed attention of Berchmans when at 
Vespers at the Church of the Gesii, that be 
never failed to be present to feast his eyes on 
the sight of a living saint, and people in the 
street used to stop and gaze after him as he 
passed. 

And as he grew in love for Jesus, so too 
grew his love for Mary. He thought the day 
was lost if he had not said something in her 



SL John Berchmans. 43 

.praise. He placed under her care his fragile 
health, his advance in holiness, and his 
progress in his studies. He vowed to defend 
her great prerogative of the Immaculate 
Conception, and signed the vow with his 
blood. He began to collect materials for a 
work, of which he had already formed the 
general plan, in defence of this privilege of 
Our Lady. To him we owe the little Rosary 
of the Immaculate Conception, now approved 
and indulgenced by the Church. 

IV. A Precious Death. (1621). 

1621. Returning home one day in July 
from a visit with the well-known historian, 
Father Strada, to his well-loved shrine of 
Our Lady, Saint Mary Major's, St. John was 
listening to the story of the peaceful and 
happy deaths of those who had died in the 
Father's -time in the Roman College. " Pray 
God, Brother John/' said the Father, ^* my 
soul may die the death of the just." " Father," 
Berchmans rejoined, in a tone so unusual in 
one whose deference to others was so remark- 
able, **we ought to say, * may my soul live 
the life of the just,' that thus we may be able 
afterwards to say, * may my soul die the death 



44 The New Saints of i8SS. 

of the just ! ' '' There was a note struck by 
these words soon to be better understood. 
And yet it was but the expression of our Saint's 
daily habit of mind. " Love of God," he 
Wrote down in his notes this year, *' is only to 
live from day to day^ from hour to hour." 

The hard work of preparation for his pubHc 
defension, through the unwholesome heat of 
a Roman summer, had tried his northern and 
delicate constitution. The truth was begin- 
ning to dawn more clearly upon him, when on 
St. Ignatius' feast, July 3TSt, he drew the 
ticket, as was the custom, of a patron saint 
for the coming month, and the motto on it 
was, " Take heed, watch and pray, for y^ 
know not when the time is." The whole 
truth at once flashed upon him, and he told 
the good news to more than one in the 
College. A few days after he was slightly 
unwell, but that did not prevent his going to 
Jtake part, by his superior's wish, in a theologi- 
'cal disputation at the Greek College, spite of 
the distance and the burning heat. That 
night the insidious Roman fever had seized 
him, and the following day he felt bound to 
tell his superior of his state, and he was sent 
off to bed in the infirmary. Now he hoped 



SL John Berchmans. ' 45 

indeed that his time was come. And matters 
got rapidly worse, for the fever robbed him of 
his sleep, and, on St. Laurence's day, inflam- 
mation of the lungs set in, and his strength 
began rapidly to give way. St. John talked 
to all that came to see him of death and of 
heaven as a general might speak of a war and 
certain victory. His only trouble was the 
inconvenience and expense to which he was 
putting the house, and, as he told his superior, 
he feared besides, were he to die, as his com- 
panion from Belgium had already done, it 
might cause some unpleasantness with the 
Fathers of his native land, who would not like 
to send any more students to Rome, and so 
would weaken the tie of charity between the 
various provinces of his Order. But other- 
wise, *^ My wish," he said, "is rather to go 
than to stay." That night he could get no 
sleep, and our Saint turned to talk to the 
infirmarian who was watching by him, and 
when the brother told him he thought he 
ought to receive Viaticum, John, spite of hrs 
prostration, leapt up and flung his arms 
around his neck in a long, joyful embrace. 
The poor brother answered his delight with 
bi1:ter sobs, but the dying youth did his very 



46 The Xrd) Saints of i8S8, 

best to comfort him. And so the early morn- 
ing passed, till at half-past four our Saint, 
dressed in his habit, and lying on the mattress 
on the floor, welcomed his Sacramental Lord. 
The moment the rector approached his side, 
John rose from his couch, and threw himself 
upon his knees. He would have fallen back, 
had not two of his brothers borne him up. 
Kneeling thus, he made, in Latin, a magnificent 
act of faith. *' I declare that there is here really 
present the Son of God, the Father Almighty, 
and of the most blessed Mary, ever a virgin ; 
I protest that I wish to live and die a true son 
of our holy Mother, the Catholic, Apostolic, 
Roman Church, a true son of the blessed 
Virgin Mary, a son of the Society." Then he 
received Viaticum and Extreme L'nction. 

All in the room were overcome by grief, 
even the Father Rector could hardly pro- 
nounce the words of the ritual. When all 
was over his superior asked him if he would 
like to say anything to console his brethren, 
and St. John whispered into his ear that his 
greatest consolation was that, never since he 
entered the Society, had he committed a de- 
liberate venial sin, or wilfully broken a rule, or 
disobeyed the order of a superior. The very 



SL John Berchmans. 47 

fact of his making such an avowal was taken 
by all as a certain proof of his foreknowledge 
of speedy death. St. John begged as a last 
favor to be allowed to bid good bye to all, and 
for a long time he gave and received his last 
messages. To all he recommended great love 
of Our Lady, great zeal for prayer, and fidel- 
ity to the rules of the Society. 

The next day was spent by St. John in 
prayer, and in saying loving words of counsel 
and farewell. He said plainly he would die 
on the morrow, and when late in the evening 
the prayers were said for a departing soul, he 
begged them to insert in the Litany the 
Saints of the Society, and among them St. 
Alphonsus Rodriguez, who had died scarcely 
four years back, and who now is joined with 
St. John in the glory of canonization. 

Twice in the night terrible storms of temp- 
tation came over the soul of the dying youth, 
and then, with rule book and crucifix, and 
his rosary twisted around them in his wasted 
hands, he lay waiting for death. The Litany 
of Our Lady was being recited by one of the 
community, and St. John repeated each peti- 
tion, even correcting the Father when, as he 
was gazing into Berchmans' face, he made 



48 The New Saints of 1888. 

some slight mistake. When the titles " Vir- 
gin of virgins/' "Mother most chaste," 
^^ Queen of virgins " were pronounced, St. 
John showed most special signs of devotion, 
making a reverence to a picture of Our Bles- 
sed Lady. Thus, at eight o'clock on Friday, 
August 13th, 162 1, with his eyes on his cruci- 
fix, and with the holy names of Jesus and 
Mary on his lips, he went to his reward. 

His death was followed by an outburst of 
devotion in Rome that made his funeral a 
scene of turmoil from the crowds that pressed 
around his holy remains, and sought to se- 
cure some relic of the Saint. 

Miracles were wrought in Belgium as in 
Rome, and crowned heads petitioned for his 
beatification. Pius IX., on May 3d, 1865, pub- 
lished the decree. On the nth, his relics 
were solemnly translated to their present rest- 
ing-place, beneath the altar of Our Lady in 
the Church of the Roman College, which 
faces the splendid shrine of St. Aloysius. 

1888. At length, Leo XIIL, on January 
15th, amidst the festivities of his Sacerdotal 
Jubilee, solemnly canonized the Belgian 
student, and completed the Three of youthful 
Jesuit Saints — Stanislaus, Aloysius, and John. 




ST. PE^TE^R CLAVER, S.J., 

APOSTLE OF THE NEGROES. 



50 



Of the Society of Jesus : 

THE APOSTLE OF THE NEGROES. 
(1580-1654.) 



BY THE REV. FATHER SOLA, S. J. 




I. The Preparation. 

[|HE city of Cartagena, on the northern 
shore of South America, was, dur- 
ing the 17th century, the central 
point of the struggle in which the nations of 
Europe were engaged for the wealth of the 
new world. Its enormous harbor made it the 
market for all the treasures of Mexico, Peru, 
Potosi, and the Islands of the Western Indies, 
and it became the scene of the most hidex)us 
traffic that ever disgraced the name of man 
and cried to heaven for vengeance. But in 
the midst of the wickedness of Cartagena, 
God raised up a witness to Himself. Where 
all was avarice, corruption, greed and cruelty, 



52 St. Peter Claver. 

a Saint was found who was for forty years 
the visible sign of God's protecting Provi- 
dence to hundreds of thousands of the most 
abject, the most abandoned of his creatures ; 
whose voice was the only one to pierce 
through that Babel of the world's loud cries, 
and bring a message of peace and pardon to 
their souls. 

1580. Peter Claver " the slave of the 
slaves forever," as he named himself in the 
formula of his religious profession, was born 
at Verdu near Barcelona, in Spain, in June of 
the year 1580. The child, consecrated from 
his birth to God by his good parents, was 
forestalled from his earliest days by the bless- 
ings of grace, and passed his first happy years 
in the simple village life. As his character 
developed it showed only fresh beauty to the 
admiring eyes of his father and mother ; who, 
seeing something of the promise of the gifts 
with which he was endowed, resolved to carry 
Gilt the offering they had made, and send him 
to pursue his studies with a view to the 
priesthood. He went first to the neighboring 
cathedral city of Solsona, where one of his 
uncles was a canon, and passed many years 
under the tutelage of this holy priest, laying 



The New Saints of 1888. 5 3 

a solid foundation of early education and 
advancing daily in virtue. He returned fre- 
quently to Verdu, both giving and receiving 
an equal amount of pleasure in these visits. 
It was noted that after his first Communion 
a change was visible in his whole deportment, 
a deepening of the recollection that always 
distinguished him, a mare careful avoidance 
of useless conversations and games. It was 
clear to all that he was marked out for God, 
and his parents yielded to the desire of the 
canon of Solsona by sending him to Barcelona, 
at that time in much resort by scholars, where 
the boy would have every advantage in culti- 
vating his many gifts. It was here that he 
learnt to know the Society of Jesus, and his 
heart was soon captivated by the holy exam- 
ples offered by the lives of the Fathers at the 
College of Belen in that city, where at this 
time a great effort was being made by them 
to introduce the practice of frequent com- 
munion, then unusual in the country. He 
joined the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, and 
was thus initiated into the higher paths of the 
spiritual life, particularly by the practice of 
mortification, penance, works of mercy and 
prayer. His vocation to a religious life 



54 ^^' P^ter Claver. 

remained undecided in his heart, until minor 
orders were conferred upon him by the 
Bishop. He felt a desire to join the Society, 
and never so strongly as when praying in the 
Jesuits' church before a picture into which the 
figures of St. Ignatius (then not fifty years 
dead) and some of the first Fathers of the 
Society were introduced ; but the desire 
remained a secret between himself and God, 
and a deep sense of his unworthiness pre- 
vented him from offering himself for admis- 
sion. At the ceremony, however, with the 
grace of minor orders came a flood of heav- 
enly light into his soul that banished hesitation. 
After fervent prayer he made known to the 
Rector his wish to join the Society, and in 
August, 1602, entered the noviceship at 
Tarragona. 

No incidents are recorded of Peter's 
noviceship that single him out from the others 
who were with him during the two years he 
passed at Tarragona. He was a perfect 
novice, and therefore the most obedient, the 
most laborious, the humblest, and the most 
hidden. The lessons he learnt at Tarragona 
were the foundation of all his future life. 
Submissive^ faithful, lowly was he then ; and 



The New Saints of 1888. 5 5 

the worn-out apostle, dying after years of 
arduous work, was only more complete in his 
submission, more minute in his fidelity, more 
abject in his lowliness. 

He kept a little book, in which he noted 
sometimes the ^ lights received in prayer. 
Amongst other entries occur the following : 
*^ Four rules to be kept by a novice of the 
Society. 

" First : to seek God in all things, and try 
to find him in all, 

" Second : to employ all one's strength in 
attaining the most perfect obedience, interior 
and exterior, subjecting the will and judgment 
to superiors as to Christ Our Lord Himself. 

" Third ; to do all for the greater glory of 
God. 

" Fourth : to seek nothing in this world 
but what Christ Our Lord sought there. As 
He came on earth to save souls and died for 
them on the cross, we should try to gain 
them for Him, for this joyfully offering our- 
selves to any labor and to death itself ; 
receiving with contentment and joy of heart 
for the love of Christ any insult that may be 
offered us, and desiring that they may be 
many, yet so that we give ao cause for thepi on 



$6 S/. Peter Claver, 

our part and that there be no offence to God." 
Towards the end of his noviceship, Peter, 
according to the usual custom of the Society 
of Jesus, was to make some practical proof of 
the love of poverty, humility, and suffering he 
had been seeking to acquire, by setting out 
with a companion on a pilgrimage. They 
were to go unprovided with money or any 
provision for the journey, begging their way, 
and lodging at nightfall in the hospitals. 
The shrine that fell to Peter Claver's lot as 
the object of his pilgrimage was that of Our 
Lady of Montserrat. 

This sanctuary is situated on a mountain 
about 4000 feet in height, which, with jagged 
peaks, towers over the city and port of 
Barcelona. It has since the 9th century been 
a place of pilgrimage and veneration, for it 
was one of the chosen sites miraculously 
designated by the Mother of God as a spot 
on which she desired to be honored. It is 
indeed a holy mountain ; for its rugged and 
*' serrated " sides are studded with hermit- 
ages^ the abodes of prayer and penance, and 
half way up stands the monastery of Bene- 
dictine monks and the church containing the 
miraculous statue. It had another attraction 



i 



The New Saints of iS88. 57 

in Peter Claver's eyes as in those of all 
pilgrims since the days of St. Ignatius ; for 
it was here that the saint, before entering on 
his life- long campaign against her enemies, 
kept his vigil as Our Lady's knight before her 
altar. Two or three days were spent at this 
shrine by Peter Claver, and to the end of his 
life he would recall, even with tears of joy, 
the happiness that this visit gave him, and 
the graces obtained for him at Montserrat 
by Our Blessed Lady. 

1604. He made his vows on the 8th of 
August. '^ I consecrate myself to God till 
death," he wrote at that time, " looking on 
myself henceforth as a slave, whose whole 
office lies in being at the service of his 
master, and working with all my soul, body, 
and mind to please and satisfy Him in all 
and by all." Shortly afterwards he went to 
the Jesuit Seminary at Gerona, where he soon 
so distinguished himself by his abilities as to 
be employed as a professor. The following 
year he went to Majorca. His superiors sent 
him thither to pursue his course of philo- 
sophy ; but God, whilst endorsing their wishes 
in this respect, had other designs upon this 
chosen servant. 



58 SL Peter Claver. 

Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, * lay-brother 
and porter at the College of Montexion at 
Palma, in Majorca, was now drawing to- 
wards the close of his life of heroic virtue. 
He received from God the glorious task of 
moulding to its great work the heart of the 
Apostle of the negroes. Peter Claver*s soul, 
when the young scholastic arrived at Majorca, 
was a rich soil, perfectly prepared to receive 
the seeds of grace that were implanted in it 
by his holy master ; and the joy of the aged 
saint, on meeting with the disciple who was 
to receive the inheritance of his spiritual 
wealth, was very great. The heart of Alphon- 
sus was on fire with apostolic zeal, but age 
and its infirmities were weighing on him, and 
his work in the world was almost done. What 
a reward for his long years of humble patience, 
to be able to enkindle this consuming fire in 
a young and ardent heart ; to inspire with 
this unquenchable thirst for souls one whose 
life was still before him ; to awaken to a high 
vocation a courage and energies capable of 
any work ! The future was known to Rodri- 
guez, and St. Peter, model as he was of every 
virtue, was in his eyes crowned with a halo 
* See his *' Life," page 101. 



The New Saints of 1888. 59 

invisible to all but him, a halo of heroic 
sacrifice, of abnegation carried to its utmost 
length, of devotion to a life of toil, of labor 
and of suffering that made him a living image 
of his crucified Redeemer. 

Peter Claver^ to whom the renown of the 
sanctity of Alphonsus was well known, had 
rejoiced exceedingly at finding that his lot 
was cast for awhile under the same roof ; and 
he sought and obtained permission to have 
every day a quarter of an hour's talk with 
him. He soon found that the great things 
said of Alphonsus were far surpassed by the 
reality ; and Alphonsus on his side treated 
his young disciple as an equal and a friend. 
These interviews not only trained Peter and 
taught him many things then, but afforded 
food for his soul and light for his mind 
throughout his whole after-life. He noted 
down most carefully the thoughts and teach- 
ing of Alphonsus, adding even sometimes the 
date of the day when the words were said ; 
and the little books in which these notes were 
made he carried with him everywhere and 
through every^thing, often referring to them 
for strength and renewal of spirit, and be- 
queathing them as treasures, on his death-bed. 



^ 



60 Sf, Peter Claver. 

to those by whom he knew they would be 
valued. 

Space does not allow of our reproducing 
here these precious notes, which contain so 
much of the doctrine of St. Alphonsus. Their 
spirit is that which characterizes the sanctity 
of their author, the absolute and sovereign 
dominion of God over us on the one hand, 
and the humility, submission, and self-conquest 
that are necessary on our side, that we may 
not in any way be wanting in the worship 
we owe to our Creator. This fundamental 
thought of the Spiritual Exercises of St. 
Ignatius is the principle of all Christian as 
well as of all spiritual life. It makes men 
saints, apostles, missionaries, martyrs, and the 
more clearly and forcibly it takes possession 
of the mind, the more powerfully it operates 
upon the will. The plenitude of the indwell- 
ing presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart 
and soul of Alphonsus gave his words a 
power that seemed well nigh sacramental, so 
marvellously did they operate in the souls of 
his hearers. He seemed to transmit not only 
the thought, but its very effect in his own 
soul, and thus through his words he commu- 
nicated the reflection of the celestial favors he 



k 



The New Saints of 1888. 6r 

himself received. His influence upon a soul 
already so holy as that of Peter Claver can- 
not be exaggerated ; and our Saint himself 
acknowledged it by the devotion, veneration, 
and love he always felt for him whom he 
never spoke of otherwise than as his " holy 
master/' 

The will of God with regard to Pete.r 
Claver was revealed to Alphonsus, and with 
all the assurance thus obtained, he spoke to 
him of the Indies — the souls perishing, the 
harvest plentiful, the laborers so few, the toil 
so great, how abundant the sufferings, and the 
reward how overflowing. Every word he 
uttered found an echo in Peter's soul, and 
awakened an intense longing to offer himself 
for the mission : a longing which his humility 
and sense of his own worthlessness might 
have kept latent, had it not been brought to 
light by the assurance of Alphonsus that it 
was God's will for him to go in search of 
these perishing souls, redeemed by the Blood 
of Christ. He was then just at the end of his 
course of philosophy, which he finished with 
great applause by being selected out of all the 
students to defend a public thesis — a task of 
which he acquitted himself to the admiration 



62 SL Peter Claver, 

of all. Before leaving Majorca he wrote to 
the Provincial, offering himself for the foreign 
missions. The answer postponed any deci- 
sion on the question until he should have 
come to Barcelona, where he was to begin the 
study of theology. 

Two years of waiting followed, during 
which time his desire for the missions in- 
creased in intensity, and he constantly re- 
newed his request to be sent. In 1609 an 
order came from the Father-General of the 
Society of Jesus, Father Claudius Acquaviva, 
that from each province in Spain a missionary 
should be sent to recruit the recently-founded 
province in the New World. St. Peter Cla- 
ver was selected for the province of Arragon, 
and he set out with his companions from the 
port of Seville in April, 1610. 

Two incidents in connection with his de- 
parture show how far he carried his spirit of 
detachment frora the world. Although his 
parents were still living within a few leagues 
of Barcelona, when he passed through that 
city he neither warned them of his coming, 
nor took leave of them. 

When the shores of Spain vanished from 
the gaze of those on deck of the saihng- 



Tlie New Saints of 1888. 63 

vessel that took them westward across the 
ocean, all memory of the land of his birth 
seemed to fade from the mind and heart of 
Peter Claver. He never spoke of the past, 
except some incidents of his religious life, and 
never asked for news. 

As often happens in life, St. Peter's work 
on his first arrival in the New World was 
very different from What he anticipated. He 
was not yet ordained, for at Seville, having 
deep in his heart the desire of passing his 
life in the Society as a lay-brother, he had 
besought and obtained postponement of or- 
dination, which was to have been there con- 
ferred upon him. 

On his arrival at Cartagena he was sent to 
the city of Santa Fe de Bogota to finish his 
course of studies, whilst his companions, who 
were priests, began at once their missionary 
labors. 

Labor, however, was not wanting to Peter 
Claver. The Jesuits' house at Santa Fe was 
scarcely founded, and was wanting in every- 
thing. The studious solitude of Barcelona 
seemed very removed from this seminary 
where, over and above his studies, Claver 
was called on to perform the greater part of 



64 . St. Peter Claver. 

the domestic work of the house. The stu- 
dent of theology was likewise porter, sacristan, 
and cook. He was rejoiced at these offices, 
and he combined one with another and with 
his studies with extraordinary dexterity, hop- 
ing in his inmost heart that, when his supe- 
riors saw his fitness for them, they would 
allow him to continue them throughout his life. 
His success however in theology, under the 
very holy and distinguished professor, Father 
Antony Augustin, was so great, that his supe- 
riors, filled with admiration for his virtues 
and talents, decided, after his final examina- 
tion, to admit him to profession. The pro- 
fessed Fathers in the Society of Jesus are of 
two grades. In the higher of them, to the 
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience 
taken by all, is added the vow of obedience 
to the Holy See. St. Peter Claver was deeply 
grieved at the honor conferred upon him 
when he was told that he was to belong to 
the higher grade. He refused, as far as 
in him lay, but was obliged to submit. His 
profession took place in 1622. And to the 
four vows he added a fifth, " to devo^ 
hiraself for ever to the salvation of the 
negroes." His third year of noviceship was 



i.\ 



J 



The New Saints of 1888. 65 

passed in the newly-founded novitiate of the 
Society at Tunja ; and at its close he returned 
to Cartagena, where he soon received the 
order to begin his retreat before his ordina- 
tion. He received the priesthood in March, 
1616. 

Hitherto Peter Claver had but received. 
The formation the Society gives her sons is 
long ; but it was complete at last, and hence- 
forward his only thought was what he could 
give. The retreat which he had just made 
marked a change in his life that might be 
compared to that from dawn to noon. Holy 
as his life had been, henceforth it was heroic, 
since every action was stamped with a super- 
natural fortitude that enabled him to exercise 
a charity that may well be called divine. His 
life is written in deeds, not words. As we 
follow him through his ministry we must not 
expect to hear him speak. His vocation was 
not that of preacher or reformer. He was a 
living witness to God's mercy in the midst of 
unequalled misery, a vindication of His Provi- 
dence in the face of man's oppression, a 
channel of His grace to hundreds of thou- 
sands of abandoned souls, an example of what, 
in Father Faber's words, one man can accom- 



66 The New Saints of iSSS, 

plish who has received *' by nature an enthusi- 
astic, lovinor heart, and from ^racc the mag- 
nificent gift of hvins; solely and entirely for 
God." 

II. The Apostolate. 

1622. At the time when St. Peter was 
sent to the Jesuits* College at Cartagena, that 
part was the Liverpool of South America. 
Every galleon of the then greatest kingdom 
in the world was forced by a law of the 
monarchs of Spain to touch there on their 
outward voyage to the Western Hemisphere. 
The quays of that tropical city were crowded 
by the sailors and merchants, the sea captains 
and soldiers of Sjxiin — Italians, Flemings, 
Spaniards; the white man, the black, the 
co])j)er-(U)lored, all full of work and athirst 
for gold and j)leasure. Almost every vessel 
that came into the harbor had a terrible but 
precious cargo — a living freight, or rather a 
dying one — for in the tomb-like hold, in the 
deep, dark, and fetid prison, through the long 
passage in the torrid heat, huddled and 
crushed together, were packed some eight or 
nine hundred men, wcMuen, and children, a 
reeking mass of corrupting humanity. 



II 



SL Peter Claver. 67 

Horrors untold had they gone through in 
the cruel slave-hunt, and then in the terrible 
march down to the African coast, leaving the 
prisoners starved and worn out, ill-prepared 
for a yet more terrible voyage. And when at 
length they are brought on shore, covered 
with open wounds and alive with vermin, they 
meet with as little pity from the white man 
who buys them, as from the slave catchers 
who had bartered them for beads and gew- 
gaws. With their limbs almost powerless 
from long confinement, they are dragged to 
the slave market to be sold again like beasts 
of burden. Ten or twelve thousand negroes 
were landed yearly at Cartagena to be trans- 
ported to the West Indian Isles, or to the 
mines of Peru. 

It was to these poor wretches that St. Peter 
Claver for nearly forty years devoted his life. 
He served his apprenticeship in his heroic 
work under Father Alphonso de Sandoval, a 
most holy and zealous Jesuit, whose health 
had been miraculously restored to him by St. 
Ignatius that he might labor for the salvation 
of the negroes, and who for many years 
endeavored, with active and tender charity, to 
lighten their load of misery, and, iibove all, to 



68 Tlie New Saints of 1888. 

save their souls. In seven years he is said to 
have baptized more than thirty thousand. At 
the time of Peter Claver's arrival in Carta- 
gena, soon after his ordination, an order had 
just arrived from Father Mutius Vitelleschi, 
General of the Society, that some other Jesuits 
should be named to work with him, that his 
admirable methods of dealing with the negroes 
should be perpetuated. Peter Claver volun- 
teered for this. He was accepted, and thus 
began his life-long work. After a year spent 
in laboring under Father de Sandoval, the 
latter was called elsewhere, and the whole 
devolved upon Father Claver, the spirit of the 
master descending upon him fourfold. 

His love for the negroes soon became so 
well known in Cartagena that upon the 
arrival of a slave ship the principal authori- 
ties would vie with one another in the 
endeavor to be the first to bring him the 
news, knowing that the reward was nine 
Masses. They loved also to see the effect 
upon him : his pale face lighted up with 
pleasure, his eyes sparkled ; he grew young 
again. He first knelt to thank God for 
having brought them safely to land, and then 
busied himself with preparations. He en- 



SL Peter Claver. 69 

quired of what race they were, that he might 
get the right interpreters ; and then he pro- 
vided what he called the "bait/* by which 
they might be caught, for he always said 
they must be spoken to first by the hand, with 
gifts. Provided with a large store of re- 
freshing drinks, fruit, preserves, lemons, 
brandy, and tobacco, he would go down to the 
quay and wait the first moment when it would 
be possible to go on board. The negroes 
who survived the horrors of the passage 
were almost crazed by its suffering. They 
thought that fresh atrocities awaited them, 
and were prepared for any cruelty. Claver 
appeared to these besotted or ferocious 
natures as an angel of charity, whose greeting 
was the first to meet them on this foreign 
shore. There was no mistaking the genuine 
love that shone in Father Claver's eyes, as he 
clasped them in his arrns .and ministered so 
tenderly to their wants. They recognized it, 
and when they heard his assurances by the 
mouth of those of their own nation whom he 
brought with him, that no harm was meant 
them, and that he would himself be their 
protector, friend, and father, they listened as 
if spell-bound. He then distributed the 



70 The New Saints of 1888. 

provisions, and next enquired whether any 
children had been born during the voyage, 
and whether there were any at the point of 
death. The children he baptized, and if the 
sick were already Christians he confessed and 
prepared them for death, if not Christians he 
instructed and baptized them ; many, as it 
seemed, only waited for this grace to die. 
He remained a long time with those who 
were ill, feeding them with his own hands, 
paying them every attention that their ex- 
treme need and his own charity could suggest, 
winning their hearts and those of the by- 
standers, who almost envied the sick when 
they saw how tenderly Father Claver cared 
for them. 

When the day came for the disembarkation 
of the negroes, Peter Claver was again at the 
quay with interpreters and provisions as 
before. As soon as the poor creatures 
descried him they scrambled up the masts 
and rigging to get a better sight of him, 
clapping their hands by way of salute. He 
would hold out his hand to them to help 
them to jump down, would receive them in 
his arms and give them the kiss of peace, 
He had provided low carts for the sick, and 



I 



SL Peter Claver. yi 

he saw to their being conveyed to these, and 
thus, when all was ready, he took them to 
their dwellings. These, alas ! were scarcely 
better than the hold of the ship they had 
quitted, but at least they were not confined 
there for so long. 

Early next morning Father Claver, after 
saying Mass, set out in his thread-bare 
cassock, a bronze crucifix upon his breast, 
carrying two bags slung across his back, 
and in his hand a staff surmounted by a 
cross. One of the bags contained a surplice, 
a stole, holy oils, rosaries, etc. The other, 
biscuits, fruit, brandy, scented-water, and 
other comforts or refreshments for the sick. 
Though thus laden, he walked so quickly that 
his companion and the interpreters could 
scarcely keep pace with him. His first 
enquiries were for the sick, and when he had 
done all he could for them he looked after 
the rest 

Having assembled them all in a large 
court-yard he erected an altar, on which he 
placed pictures fitted to give their dull minds 
some idea of the truths he was about to teach 
them. The central and most conspicuous 
represented the Crucifixion ; streams of blood 



*J2 The New Saints of 1888. 

ran from the five wounds and were collected 
in a precious vase by a priest, who was about 
to baptize therefrom a negro who awaited 
that grace upon his knees in an attitude of 
deep devotion. Cardinals and kings in stately 
robes assisted at the ceremony. On one side 
of this group were shown, all shining in light, 
the negroes who had received baptism, on the 
other, hideous and deformed, those who had 
rejected it. 

Before beginning his Catechism, he took 
each negro separately to examine whether he 
had been baptized. This he was obliged to 
do quite privately, because he found by ex- 
perience that, if they could hear one another's 
answers, they would follow like sheep and all 
give the same reply. The result of this ex- 
amination was to divide the negroes into 
three classes : those who had been baptized, 
those who had not, and those whose baptism 
was doubtful ; he distinguished them by 
medals which he put around their neck. 

He then commenced the instruction. The 
negroes were ranged around, seated on 
benches he had himself provided for them. 
Father Claver, taking his cross in his hands, 
would kneel down in their midst, and prayed 



; St. Peter Claver. ^ 73 

there silently for some minutes, his face 
lighted up with heavenly fire. Then raising 
his right hand, he made very solemnly a large 
sign of the cross, saying at the same time the 
usual words. This action and the words he 
repeated several times, and then with his in- 
terpreters he went in turn to every negro, 
making every one sign himself in the same way 
with the holy sign. He would give sweet- 
meats as a reward to those who did it well, 
and gently find fault with the others ; nor 
would he ever pass on to another until the 
last had by frequent repetition learnt his les- 
son perfectly. From this beginning he led 
them on to acts of faith, which in their turn 
gave rise to acts of hope, and these to acts 
of charity and contrition. His own example 
acted in a marvellous way upon their un- 
taught minds, and they caught the reflection 
of his ardent faith and burning charity. He 
took advantage of these dispositions to rouse 
in them a hatred of idolatry and desire for 
baptism. *^ See, my children," he would say, 
" you must do like the serpent who shakes off 
his old skin that he may have another and far 
more beautiful one ; " and to make his mean- 
ing clearer, he would take between finger and 



74 The New Saints of 1888. 

thumb the skin of his hand as if he were 
going to tear it off. The poor slaves, whose 
attention was completely rivetted upon him, 
and who followed his minutest action, would 
then make use of the same signs to show 
they understood, and were ready to strip off 
their old idolatry. 

But the deepest impression was made when, 
crucifix in hand, he spoke to them of the 
great love of the God who thus died for them. 
His words were accompanied by such floods 
of tears of love and sorrow, that seeing them, 
the negroes broke forth into sobs and lamen- 
tations, and even cries of grief. He con- 
cluded always with an act of contrition, 
usually in these words : " My Lord Jesus 
Christ, only Son of God, You are my Father, 
my Mother, and all my good. I love You 
with all my heart and am very sorry for hav- 
ing oft'ended You ; I love You dearly, dearly." 
Tears drowned his voice in saying these 
w^ords ; the negroes wept with him, and thus 
ended the instruction for that day. 

Shortly after, when other instructions of the 
same nature had prepared them sufficiently, 
a day was appointed for their baptism, and all 
possible solemnity was given to the ceremony. 



SL Peter Claver. 75 

The number of baptisms thus administered 
cannot be known with certainty, but it probab- 
ly exceeded four hundred thousand. It was a 
work always to be renewed, as relays of ne- 
groes succeeded one another without intermis- 
sion during the forty years of Peter Claver's 
ministry. 

The good Father was not satisfied with 
making Christians of the negroes ; he would 
have them good Christians, and to effect this 
he followed them into all the detail of their 
lives. It was remarked of him that he seemed 
to be everywhere at once, if not miraculously, 
at least by the incredible speed and fervor 
with which he went from one part of the city 
to the other, to visit the sick or instruct the 
ignorant. No one could keep up with him, 
and he was obliged to change his companion 
two or three times in the course of an after- 
noon. The climate of Cartagena is a cause 
of great suffering to its inhabitants, but 
scorching sun, drenching rain, and biting 
wind never had the power to deter Peter 
Claver from a single charitable visit. Night 
as well as day was devoted to this ministry. 
" The other Fathers," he would say, '* work 
hard and need their rest. I, who do nothing. 



76 The New Saints of 1888, 

have no need of sleep ; " and so, when the 
l)ell for a sick call rang at night, for his nights 
were passed in prayer^ he was always first to 
answer it and obtain the task he coveted. 

Negroes, even when in health, are repulsive 
on account of their natural odor and uncivil- 
ized habits, but when in illness they become 
intolerable. The acts of charity which Peter 
Claver performed for them are such that we 
can scarcely bear to bring them home to 
ourselves. Weak hearts sicken even at hear- 
ing of what the heroic self-conquest of this 
true lover of the cross performed for these 
poor outcast children of our common Father. 
No wonder that his charity was rewarded by 
the gift of miracles, and that at his prayer 
souls that had already left the body should 
return until they had received baptism or 
absolution, and their salvation was thus en- 
sured. Three miracles of this kind are 
witnessed to, and innumerable cures were 
granted to his prayers. That we may learn 
how Peter Claver taught himself to overcome 
the natural loathing for what is nauseous, as 
strong in him as in other men, let us take 
courage and follow him to one abode of 
misery from which we may fancy what the 



SL Peter Claver, yy 

rest were like. He was once called to the 
house of a rich trader to confess a negro who 
was covered all over with sores ; the stench 
•that they exhaled was so fetid that the sufferer 
was placed apart in an out-house. His very 
appearance was so horrible that no one dared 
to approach him, and strange to say, even 
Peter Claver, when he saw him, was seized 
with a repugnance that made him recoil with 
horror. The Father was followed^ unknown 
to himself, by the master of the house, curious 
to witness the charity of which he had often 
heard. He saw the recoil of nature, but he 
saw also how it was met. Peter Claver with- 
drew a little, and gave himself a severe disci- 
pline. " Is this the way," he said to himself, 
^' that you refuse to touch a brother redeemed 
by the Precious Blood! But you shall pay 
for it and learn charity." Then he came back, 
and approaching the sick man upon his knees, 
devoutly and most tenderly kissed the loath- 
some sores and cleansed them with his tongue; 
he gave refreshments to the sufferer, heard 
his confession, remained a long time by his 
side, and left him full of consolation. When 
he came out, his face was very calm, and a 
grave and sweet serenity was remarked by all. 



78 The New Saints of 1888, 

Sometimes when, with the sick, he required 
the assistance of others, and the foul atmos- 
phere prevented them from being able to 
approach it, they found it changed into a 
sweet and refreshing air when no natural 
means could have effected the improvement. 
His cloak, which he used often to spread 
beneath the leprous and revolting sick, far 
from contracting any unpleasant smell, was 
fragrant with a perfume of sweet flowers. It 
was quite a common thing with him to apply 
his lips to, and to lick, the most infected 
sores. He saw Jesus Christ in all His suffer- 
ing members, and treated Him in them with 
the tenderness he would have bestowed on the 
wounds of his Master. 

His eyes were always on the negroes and 
their conduct ; and his presence and even the 
mere mention of his name were a restraint to 
keep them within bounds. If their dances, 
which he allowed as long as they were not 
indecent, exceeded the limits of propriety, he 
was no longer the loving Father but the 
avenger of God*s law, and holding on high in 
one hand a crucifix, in the other a discipline, 
he would rain down a shower of blows on the 
dancers and musicians, who were glad to 



St. Peter Claver, yg 

escape from them, even with the loss of their 
instruments. These he took possession of, 
and restored them only after an alms had 
been given to the poor of the hospital. He 
was always the strict guardian of their morals, 
and saw to their observance of the laws of 
God and of the Church. 

It was not the negroes of Cartagena alone 
who were the objects of his care. Every year 
he undertook most laborious missions into 
the surrounding country, travelling with a 
negro interpreter, whom he obeyed as his 
superior, deferring to him on all points, and 
leaving to him the ordering of the journey. 
He baptized, heard confessions, preached from 
morning till night, travelling across desert 
wastes of country from one settlement to the 
other, until he returned to Cartagena, worn to 
a skeleton from excessive toil, but only 
anxious to resume the labors he had been 
forced to abandon for a time in the city 
itself. Here, the poor in the hospitals, and 
especially the lepers, the prisoners, the sol- 
diers, the merchants, all classes in short, were 
in turn the objects of his zeal," for he was the 
apostle not only of the negroes, but of all 
Cartagena. He made himself the peace- 



8o The New Saints of 1888. 

maker between enemies, he converted here- 
tics ; in short, wherever God's work was to be 
done at the cost of sacrifice, Peter Claver was 
there to do it with an energy, love, devoted- 
ness that won over the most obdurate by the 
sweet persuasive force of sanctity. No day 
passed without the exercise of some heroic act 
of charity. 

III. The Reward. 

Let us turn from the streets and squares, 
from the busy money-loving crowd, from the 
misery, the cupidity and the worldliness of 
Cartagena, to follow its Apostle into his cell 
in the Jesuits' College of that city, to study 
for a little while his life as a religious and his 
life with God, thus tracing to its source all 
the charity and self-sacrifice we have been 
witnessing. 

The College of Cartagena was poor, both 
in the means of subsistence and the number 
of its Fathers ; but whilst existence there 
was a struggle that entailed unnumbered 
hardships upon its members, it was a school 
in which they were formed to no common 
measure of holiness. Peter Claver was at 
one time minister in the College, that is, the 



St. Peter Claver, 8r 

second in command, and his duty therefore 
was to supply all the material wants of his 
brethren. At another time he had the charge 
of the formation of the lay-brother novices. 
Whatever his employment, he was always the 
servant of all ; and as for so long a time 
each day he required the presence of a com- 
panion, and the lay-brothers were very few 
and very busy, he always made time for the 
one assigned him as companion, by doing a 
part of his work. Thus he was sometimes in 
the sacristy, at others in the kitchen or the 
lodge, but whatever the office, he would al- 
ways respectfully take off his hat before the 
brother in charge, and beg him to tell him 
what to do. 

His cell was for a long time a mere closet, 
too dark to allow him to see to write in it. 
His bed was always the hide of an ox or a 
common mat, his pillow a block of wood. 
But poor as this bed was, he left it usually to 
sleep upon the bare floor. He would some- 
times for months together have in his room 
one of his negro interpreters, who was ill with 
a disease that made it almost intolerable to be 
near him, and Father Claver would nurse 
him there with the tenderness of a mother. 



82 The New Saints of 1888. 

Let us follow him into his cell when, after 
the almost superhuman toil of the day, he is 
at length alone. We shall see him take out 
a crown of very sharp thorns and place it on 
his head, for this is his usual practice when 
alone. He always says his Office thus when 
in his room. The night is not for him a 
time of sleep, but of prayer and penance, and 
the sleep he took was but of two or three 
hours. 

He was often absorbed the whole night 
long in contemplation, so as to be uncon- 
scious even of the violent thunderstorms pre- 
valent in that climate. His neighbor, Broth- 
er Gonzalez, under the influence of fear, 
would sometimes rush into Father Claver's 
room when the storm was very violent, and 
go close up to him for protection, without 
distracting him for an instant from his inter- 
course with God. The rector used to make 
his confession to Father Claver, and for this 
purpose would occasionally go to his room at 
night. Opening the door gently, he often 
found him with his crown of thorns upon his 
head, a rope around his neck, and so ab- 
sorbed in God that, not to interrupt his prayer, 
he would withdraw unobserved. He used to 






5^. Peter Claver. 83 



^say he did not know when Father Claver's 
prayers were over, for at whatever hour he 
came to him, he always found him so engaged. 

Every Friday St. Peter Claver would leave 
his room in the dead of night, with the crown 
of thorns upon his head, the rope around his 
neck, and a heavy cross upon his shoulders, 
and thus clothed in the likeness of Jesus 
Christ he made a penitential pilgrimage 
throughout the house. He took the disci- 
pline every night three times to blood, once 
before he went to sleep, again at midnight, 
and a third time when a signal was given for 
the community to rise. The rough hair 
shirt he always wore was the only dressing 
he ever applied to those self-inflicted wounds. 

Three times it happened that the door 
being opened in the middle of the night, 
Father Claver was thus seen raised some 
height above the ground in the same attitude 
in which he had been kneeling in prayer ; his 
eyes were fixed with intense love upon the 
crucifix he held in his hands, and he was 
surrounded by a soft, yet brilliant light. He 
remained for some hours in this position and 
then gently descended to the floor. The 
same unearthly radiance was often seen 



84 The New Saints of i 

around his head when he was saying Mass, 
when visiting the hospitals, and when he 
was assisting criminals at their execution. 
It was so brilliant that no one could look 
on it without being dazzled. 

The Passion of Our Lord was the strongest 
attraction of his soul, and he tried, as far as 
possible^ that in imitation of his Lord no 
part of his body should be without suffering. 
To obtain this, besides the austerities already 
spoken of, he bound his limbs about with 
horse-hair cords studded with iron points, 
and these he always wore. But if his pen- 
ances were fearful, the mortification of his 
senses was no less astonishing. During the 
fifty years he spent in religion he never 
allowed his eyes a single glance which was 
prompted by mere curiosity. The window of 
a cell he occupied for many years looked out 
upon the port, but he never opened it, nor 
looked out at what passed beneath. He 
never indulged himself with the fragrance of 
a flower and never tasted fruit. The guard 
he obtained over his senses was so great 
that he never made a movement to drive 
away mosquitoes or other stinging insects, 
but rather invited their approach. In his 



SL Peter Claver, 85 

confessional they swarmed about him so that 
he was sometimes covered with blood from 
their stings. He would only laughingly say, 
if any one made a remark about it, that they 
were very useful, as they bled him without 
need of a lancet. He used similar devices 
to throw a veil over all his virtues. 

Before the first Mass, often at three o'clock 
in the morning, Claver was already in his 
confessional, which he had chosen as the 
most inconvenient one in the Church, close 
to the door and exposed all day to sun or 
rain. He often remained in it so many hours 
that^ when the College gates were closed at 
night, he had to be carried almost fainting 
with exhaustion to his room. The negroes 
came to him in crowds, and whilst there were 
any of them to confess no one else had a 
chance of being heard. All the early hours 
of the morning he passed in his confes- 
sional, for it was his custom always to say 
the latest Mass. 

He prepared for celebrating the Holy 
Sacrifice by first making his confession, 
which he did shedding abundant tears of 
sorrow ; and then, whatever his occupations 
might be, he spent a full hour in prayer, and 



86 The New Saints of 1888, 

he never spoke to any one from that time till 
• he had finished his thanksgiving. His devo- 
tion to the Blessed Sacrament, always most 
remarkable, was especially shown whilst he 
ivas saying Mass, when his whole appearance 
was so expressive of the fervor of his soul 
that all who assisted at it were penetrated 
with a like feeling. 

Whenever he could, Saint Peter Claver^s 
great happiness was to take his meals with 
the beggars at the door. He would eat 
with them gladly out of the same dish, and 
when the meal was over would collect and 
wash the plates and cups, sweep up the 
crumbs, in fact make himself the slave of the 
poor as he was the slave of negroes. He 
never ate more at dinner than the amount 
those who fast take for their collation; scraps 
of bread collected from the tables, with a 
potato, were his ordinary food. One eve- 
ning, whilst he was minister of the house, 
entering the refectory for supper, he asked 
the cook to give him the contents of an 
earthen vessel containing some broth made 
of olives. It was brought to him, and having 
thrown in a morsel of bread he thanked the 
brother, saying it was excellent. The follow- 



SL Peter Claver, 87 

ing evening he made the same request, and 
after this the cook's curiosity was excited, as 
it was so unusual for Father Claver to ask for 
or to praise his food. So he tasted the de- 
coction and was immediately seized with 
violent pains and sickness. He looked into 
the vessel, and there he found the bodies of 
large spiders and other insects in a state of 
decomposition, and so he immediately threw 
away the remainder. The third evening the 
Father again enquired for his favorite dish, 
and when he heard its fate: *^ God's will be 
done," he said, "but there was no need to 
throw it away^ for it was very good." 

The time of the siesta, or afternoon rest, 
so needed in hot climates, he employed in 
teaching Catechism to his interpreters and 
catechists, and his patience with these men 
was not one of the least marvellous of his 
virtues. During recreation time, when with 
the Community, he was always engaged in 
making rosaries for the negroes. His devo- 
tion to Our Blessed Lady was only second to 
that which he felt for her Divine Son, and 
he spared no pains and no opportunity to in- 
culcate it upon all, especially upon children, 
whom he loved to train up in tender devo- 



88 Tlie New Saints of i 

tion to her whom he used most frequently to 
speak of as '' Mother of fair love." 

Two maxims, which he had learnt from 
Blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, were deeply 
engraved upon his heart, and firmly and con- 
sistently did he practise them. They were 
discovered amongst his writings after his 
death in these words: 

Fi7'st Maxim. "When I am persecuted 
or calumniated I have either deserved it or 
not. If I have, why do I complain ? Ought 
I not rather to correct my fault and seek 
pardon from God ? If I have not deserved it, 
I should rejoice at it, and be grateful to God 
for this opportunity of suffering something for 
His love, and for the rest I must be silent." 

Second Maxim, ^' When crosses or op- 
position come, why do I not imitate the ass ? 
When he is ill-treated he is silent; when he 
is neglected, over-laden, starved, despised, 
he is still silent. Whatever is said of him, 
whatever is done to him, he is still silent and 
makes no complaint. So, likewise^ should a 
true servant of God act and say with David: 
' I am become like a beast of burden before 
Thee.' " 

It seemed indeed to be the one aim of 



I 



St. Peter Claver, 89 

Peter Claver's life to try how low and despi- 
cable he could make himself appear before 
men. We will give one example to show 
how far his humility was carried when it was 
a question of taking correction. During 
Holy Week he saw in the Jesuits' Church a 
lady whose dress befitted neither the season 
of penance nor the house of God, and was 
quite unbecoming a Christian woman. His 
zeal was enkindled, and he reproached her 
with the style of her dress and suggested 
that it was unsuited to the time, her con- 
dition, and her age. This last remark was 
more than she could stand, and she flew into 
a passion and gave way to such angry words 
that she attracted the attention of the sacris- 
tan, who began to take her part and blame 
the Father's indiscretion. A moment after- 
wards the rector came up, and either because 
he could not otherwise appease the lady's 
anger, or because he really thought that 
Father Claver was in the wrong, reprimanded 
severely his imprudence and his allowing 
himself to be carried away by the impetuosity 
of his zeal. Without one word to justify 
himself Father Claver knelt down before his 
superior. He kissed his feet, asked pardon 



90 The New Saints of 1888, 

for the scandal which he had given, and 
begged that a penance proportioned to the 
fault might be imposed upon him. The 
lady was so surprised and so confused at what 
had occurred through her conduct, that she 
made a complete change in her way of life, 
and was henceforward as edifying as she had 
been the contrary. 

Father Claver was in this, as in all other 
occasions, a living model of his own maxim 
on humility : '' The man who is truly humble 
desires contempt, and without seeking to 
appear humble, he tries to appear to deserve 
to be humbled." 

But what was the reward that His Lord and 
Master bestowed upon His faithful follower ? 
It was one that this true lover of the cross 
would have chosen out of all others, the only 
one indeed, that he deemed deserving of the 
name: the privilege of pressing closer to His 
Saviour crucified, of feeling more the pain He 
bore for us, of sharing more abundantly in 
His ignominies. His abandonment. His shame. 
It would be difficult to imagine a trial that 
would cut the apostle of the negroes more 
keenly to the heart, than that of being for- 
bidden to open for them by baptism the path 



SL Peter Claver, 91 

of salvation ; yet, when a storm was raised 
against the Jesuits in Cartagena by their 
enemies, all its violence fell upon Peter 
Claver, and he was accused of re-baptizing 
those who had already received the sacrament. 
The accusation was quite unjustifiable, but 
the Visitor-General of the Society of Jesus 
forbade him in future to baptize, and the 
saint thought it better to submit in silence 
than to protest his innocence. He never 
asked to baptize until the order was with- 
drawn. There was a time when every one, 
even his superiors, seemed against him. Not 
only did his own children, the negroes, abuse 
his patience, but their masters encouraged 
them to treat him with insult, alleging that 
he made them lose their time. Although 
many of his religious brethren had the great- 
est veneration for his holiness, some of them 
were allowed to be blind to his merit, and not 
only made complaints of the additional labor 
caused by his zeal and charity, but made him 
responsible for any ignorance or mistakes on 
the part of negroes instructed by him. They 
bitterly reproached him and drew on him 
reprimands so public and so severe that it 
required a patience like his own to bear them 



92 The New Saints of 1888, 

meekly. Once a Provincial, who was much 
irritated at hearing a young slave spoken of as 
^' Father Claver's negro," expressed his dis- 
pleasure with much warmth and even bitter- 
ness. But the Father listened without making 
any reply, although he had no other connection 
with the pretended fault than that of having 
got the situation for the little negro in the 
house. Another superior, who was prejudiced 
against him^ expressed contempt for his 
opinion, saying he was ignorant and did not 
even understand Latin. Untrue as the taunt 
was, he made no answer but to acknowledge 
his ignorance. '' What does it matter,*' he 
said to some who were surprised at his seren- 
ity, '' whether one is thought learned or 
ignorant. But it is very necessary to be 
humble and obedient." The last four years 
of his life were passed in almost total solitude 
and inaction. In 1650, when he was seventy 
years old, having until that age labored with 
unremitting ardor, he was attacked by a 
very severe illness, and although he recovered 
he never regained his strength. From that 
time he was confined almost entirely to his 
room, and for many months before the end 
could neither feed himself nor even rise from 



SL Peter Claver, 93 

his bed. Although unable to say Mass from 
the palsy that shook his frame, he still made 
his confession daily, and dragged himself or 
was carried to the Church to hear Mass and 
receive Communion, and as long as it was 
possible he continued to hear confessions. 

As his weakness increased his patience was 
more and more exercised. The plague had 
ravaged Cartagena, and many Jesuits had 
succumbed to it; those who survived were 
overburdened with work and were quite un- 
able to give Father Claver the attention they 
would have desired. He was confided to the 
care of some clumsy negroes, especially of a 
rough and awkward boy, whose attendance 
caused him every kind of suffering and made 
his life a martyrdom. Sometimes the servant 
neglected to bring him either food or drink 
for days together. His room was left unswept 
for weeks, and so as to become uninhabitable, 
and to this negative unkindness was added 
the positive barbarity of blows and savage 
treatment. Yet Father Claver never com- 
plained ; no shade came over the calm 
tranquillity of his expression. '' My sins," he 
used to say, ^' deserve infinitely more.." Still 
his tender conscience reproached him with 



94 The New Saints of 1888, 

feelings that human nature must needs ex- 
perience, though no expression of them was 
ever allowed. ^^ My impatience during my 
illness," he once said, ^^ has robbed me of 
whatever merit I had gained." Sometimes 
he would express his sorrow that the boy 
would not help him to rise when he wanted to 
go to Mass or to visit the Blessed Sacrament. 
The efforts he made to do so unassisted 
caused him many a fall. The noise was 
overheard by the Brother in the sacristy 
below, and brought him to his aid. But 
finding that his Brother, in helping him to 
dress, treated him too respectfully and consid- 
erately, he would dismiss him with many 
thanks and call for the negro, whose rough 
usage was far more to his mind. 

Two great consolations came to lighten the 
burden of these painful years of weary help- 
lessness. One was the arrival of Father de 
Farina, who was sent by the King of Spain to 
succeed him in the work of baptizing the 
negroes. "What !" he cried, "come to bap- 
tize the negroes ! that is good news," and his 
face beamed with joy, as he struck his stick 
upon the floor. He rose at once and dragged 
himself to the room the Father occupied, 



St. Peter Claver, 95 

knelt before him and kissed his feet, congrat- 
ulating him on his employment. When Fa- 
ther de Farina learnt that the holy old man 
before him was no other than Father Claver, 
he felt their places should be reversed ; and 
he in turn fell at the feet of the servant of 
God, protesting that he should always look 
upon him as his master. 

The other consolation was the printed life 
of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, which reached 
him eight months before his death and was a 
great delight to him, recalling as it did so 
many memories of his holy master, and ensur- 
ing that the veneration he himself felt for the 
saintly lay-brother would be widely propa- 
gated. 

An order arrived from Spain to pull down 
the Jesuit College^ but Father Claver re- 
ceived a distinct knowledge from God that, 
before this happened, he himself should be 
safe in the eternal home not made with 
hands. The demolition was to begin at once 
and there seemed no immediate prospect of 
Father Claver's death. Yet he spoke of it as 
near at hand, and begged that he might be 
buried ^' by his confessional, near the church 
door and at the feet of his dear negroes," a 



96 The Nezv Saints of 1888, 

request which, however, was not granted. 
On Sunday, Sept. 6, 1654, he was assisted 
for the last time to the church, by two ne- 
groes, and after Communion returned in the 
same way to his room. As he passed the 
sacristy he said to the Brother : " I am going 
to die, do you want anything for the next 
life ? " " That your reverence may recom- 
mend me with this house and city to God," 
was the reply. Father Claver passed the re- 
mainder of the day in close converse with 
God, and towards evening was attacked by a 
violent fever^ that seemed to be rather the 
effect of his very ardent love acting on his 
weakened constitution than a natural malady. 
During the night unconsciousness came on, 
and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction was 
administered early the next morning, but the 
holy Father never spoke again and gave no 
sign of consciousness. His blessed soul, 
thus purified by suffering, passed to its eter- 
nal and most glorious reward on the feast of 
the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 

Strange to say, no sooner was he dead 
than a fever of enthusiasm seized upon the 
city to do honor and to reverence as a saint 
the man who during his long sickness had 



Sf. Peter Claver. 97 

lain abandoned by nearly all. The college 
was literally besieged by crowds who came to 
venerate his remains, and through the streets 
the children went crying loudly, ^^the Saint 
is dead, the Saint is dead." Above all, his 
own negroes came from all quarters of the 
city and its neighborhood to testify their love 
and gratitude, and the authorities outdid each 
other in public and substantial expressions of 
esteem. Honor was in truth his due, for he 
was a conqueror indeed. He gained innu- 
merable souls for God and heaven, and he 
was a victor in that hardest and most obsti- 
nate of fights^ the struggle against self-love, 
self-interest, and self-will. No wonder that, 
when a palm branch was placed upon his 
body after death, the dead stiff fingers should 
unclose, as they were seen to do, and grasp a 
symbol to which he had so true a right. 

Father Claver was beatified by Pope Pius 
the Ninth on the 21st of September, 185 1 ; 
but his canonization was reserved- to add 
lustre to the jubilee of Our Holy Father^ Leo 
the Thirteenth. 




^T. ALF'HONSUS RODRIGUKZ, SJ 

THE HOLY LAY-BROTHEK. 



0/ the Society of Jesus : 

THE HOLY LAY-BROTHER. 
(153I-1617.) 



BY THE REV. FRANCIS GOLDIE, S. J. 




I. Life in the World. 

HESE are days of equality, when 
every man claims to be as good as 
his neighbor, and possibly a great 
deal better. Democracy disapproves of class 
privileges and class distinctions. Feudal — 
old-world — notions about society are quite at 
a discount. But with all this there has never 
been an age when, even in young countries, 
like the great Republic across the Atlantic, 
social inequalities were so great, when the 
rich were so rich and the poor were so poor. 
So too, never has there been a time since 
Christianity took the place of Paganism, when 
the poor chafed so much under their lot^ and 



I02 The New Saints of 1888, 

the rich made such a display of their wealth. 
In New York as in London, the man who has 
amassed the largest fortune is the man most 
envied and most thought of, and if in both 
cities much public spirit, much philanthropy is 
shown, still, immense sums are expended in 
mere sumptuous living and pretentious luxury. 
No wonder that any theories levelled at riches 
find a ready hearing with the starved and 
the envious, or that schemes the most untried 
and the most impracticable are preached with 
an appearance of truth, as sure ways to bring 
within the reach of all the plenty which is in 
the possession of the few. Such things have 
been before, and will be to the end : and the 
unequal distribution of the good things in 
this world will always be a puzzle to the 
social economist, and a spiritual stumbling- 
block to many. But the doctrine of Jesus 
Christ, in proportion as it is believed, and 
realized, and brought into daily life^ can give 
a real solution to the riddle, can keep the rich 
from an abuse of their riches, and the poor 
from discontent with their poverty. Catho- 
licity, when not merely professed, but thor- 
oughly practised, as we still find it in some 
Catholic countries, or as it was in days gone 




St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, 103 

by^ before the revolt of the sixteenth century, 
gives true equality, while always recognizing 
the natural and necessary distinctions between 
man and man, and makes of one heart and 
one mind the rich and the poor, the governing 
and the governed. 

So to-day the Church has just glorified a 
poor, humble old lay-brother, who in out-of- 
the-way Majorca, for thirty years or more, 
kept the gate of a provincial college. And as 
this humble position and this servitude were 
freely embraced, all the more does it point 
the lesson of the Church's honors. " He hath 
exalted the humble, and the rich He hath 
sent empty away," were the inspired words of 
the poor Maiden of Nazareth, which declare 
that God glorifies forever those who walk in 
the footsteps of His Incarnate Son ; but to 
those who make their heaven here on earth 
He says, ^^ Amen, you have had your reward." 
What truer way to redress the apparently 
unjust balances of life ? 

Segovia was a busy place, a Leeds without 
its smoke^ in the early part of the bustling 
sixteenth century. With a great historical 
past, the beautiful old city in the heart of 
Spain was then noisy with the looms of the 



i\ 



104 77^ A^ezu Saints of 1888, 

cloth-weavers, and with the cries of the shep- 
herds who drove in their flocks of sheep from 
the blue hills around. It was more than this. 
Before Philip II. made Madrid, it was one of 
the capitals of Spain. Diego Rodriguez, an 
honest cloth merchant of the city, was blessed 
with a large family, some eleven children, of 
whom the second boy, Alonso, or, as we call 
him, Alphonsus, is the subject of our story. 
Alphonsus was born on the 25th of July, 
1531, St. James' Day. Diego was noted for 
the holiness of his household. The frequent 
Communions of his family — so unusual in 
the days before the Council of Trent — gave 
them a reputation for piety among the 
townsfolk ; and when in, 1539, Blessed Peter 
Favre, with another Father of the new So- 
ciety of Jesus, came to preach a mission to 
Segovia, they gratefully accepted the hospital- 
ity of Diego. After their fruitful work was 
done, he offered them a country house of his 
own — for Jesuit houses were then few and 
far between — wherein to rest from their 
labors by making their aanual retreat. Diego 
sent Alphonsus with the Fathers to wait upon 
them, and they in return taught the little boy 
to serve Mass, to say his beads, and prepared 



vS/. Alphonsus Rodriguez, 105 

him for his first confession. Though he 
was then but about nine years old, they 
found him not only of a charming disposition 
and anxious to learn, but an apt and clever 
scholar. 

1544. As soon as Diego heard of the 
wonderful reform that a religious of the new 
Society, the humble Francis de Villanueva, 
was effecting in the great university of Al- 
cala, he sent his two boys to study under his 
care. But before the scholastic year had 
passed their father died, and the young Al- 
phonsus was recalled home, and, though not 
fifteen, had to go into his late father's business. 
He had not got to the highest class, called 
rhetoric — had not, in a word, finished his 
classical education. It was not, however, till 
he was twenty-three that his mother retired 
from the business. 

1557. Spite of Alphonsus' integrity and 
high principle, his affairs began to go wrong. 
The foreign wars of Charles V., the easily-got 
gold of America, and still more, an utterly 
false system of financial legislation, were 
ruining the wool trade, and in fact all the 
manufactures of Spain. When Alphonsus 
was twenty-seven, he was induced to take to 



io6 The New Saints of 1888, 

wife a girl, well born and pious, from the 
hill country near Segovia, whose dowry, it 
was hoped, would save from ruin the family 
business. But things only grew worse. 
Diego, the eldest brother, who had remained 
at Alcala and there completed his studies, 
had obtained the degree of LI..D., taken to 
the law, and settled at Seville, died in the 
flower of his youth, just as his family con- 
ceived high hopes of him, leaving behind him 
a widow. Then Alphonsus lost a sweet 
little daughter, and after a long illness, which 
was to him a cause of very great expense, his 
young wife died, and his only consolation in 
this world was the sole surviving child, a 
boy. 

1559. Two years after his marriage the 
Jesuit Fathers, at the earnest request of 
priests and people, had established themselves 
permanently at Segovia. A gentleman of Sego- 
via, who had been a friend of St. Ignatius 
of Loyola, when at Rome, welcomed the relig- 
ious of the Order to his native city. The 
first comers were Father Christopher Rodri- 
guez, the future Nuncio to Abyssinia, and 
Chaplain-General at the Battle of Lepanto, 
and Father Louis Santander, whose preaching 



St, Alpkonsus Rodriguez. 107 

was a source of a complete renewal of relig- 
ious life in the city. Father Louis was ap- 
pointed the first rector of the college, and 
when St. Teresa came to Segovia to found 
there one of her houses, he was both her 
counsellor and her confessor. Naturally 
enough, the Rodriguez family had been 
among the earliest to put themselves under 
the spiritual care of the Fathers of the Society, 
and our Saint — whose domestic troubles had 
shown him the vanity of the world, though 
his life had always been a pious one — gave 
himself up, under their direction, entirely to 
prayer and to penance. He realized what still 
remained of his goods, and he retired with his 
child into a part of the house, his first home, 
of which another portion was occupied by 
his mother and by two of his sisters, whose 
holiness merited for them the name of ^' the 
blessed." Seen in the clear light of his new 
grace, Alphonsus looked on his past life as 
utterly misspent, and condemned himself for 
not having heeded God and 'his own salva- 
tion. 

1562. He made a general confession of 
his whole life to Father Baptist Martinez, 
S.J., and from the feast of Our Lady of the 



io8 Tlie Xezu Sai?tts of i 

Snow, the 5th of August, he began to go 
regularly every week to the sacraments, a 
very rare practice in those days. He kept 
every Friday and Saturday as a strict fast, 
scourged himself continually, and wore a 
hair-shin, which covered him from his shoul- 
ders to his knees. This period of penance 
and profound contrition lasted for three long 
years. But God as usual came to comfort 
the soul which sought him so earnestly. Al- 
phonsus recited the whole Rosar}- every day 
on his knees. As he said his " Our Father " 
a beautiful crimson rose used to appear before 
him, and at each " Hail Mary " a white rose, all 
of wondrous beauty and fragrance, and when 
his sisters learnt this favor from him, they 
taught him how to meditate upon the various 
mysteries. Morning and evening he gave 
two hours to this pious practice, and spent an 
extra quarter of an hour in thanksgiving. He 
then heard Mass with deep devotion. Later, 
on he passed from vocal prayer to regular 
meditation, and without ceasing to say his 
Rosary, gave four hours to strictly mental 
prayer. The great truths. Death, Hell, and 
Judgment, were for his first years the con- 
stant subject of his thoughts. He then pas- 



SL Alphonsiis Rodriguez. 109 

sed on to the contemplation of the life and 
sufferings of Our Lord. In reward for his 
diligence in prayer, it was vouchsafed to him 
to drink of the chalice of the Lord's Passion, 
by sharing in a marvellous but most real man- 
ner in the mental and physical agonies of his 
crucified Lord, while he was meditating upon 
them. 

1563* But on the morning of the feast of 
the Assumption, when in the Jesuit church 
preparing with all care for holy Communion, 
Alphonsus was rapt into the third heavens, 
and the glories of God's heavenly court, with 
which he was to become so familiar, were 
for the first time made manifest to him. He 
saw his God seated on a throne surrounded 
by countless glorious spirits, and crowned 
with a diadem of untold glory ; while Our 
Blessed Lady, with his guardian angel and 
his patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi, led 
him to the feet of his Lord, to lay his offering 
before his Divine Master. When he came to 
himself, he was so dazed with what he had 
seen, that he could hardly find his way out of 
the church. So impressed was he with these 
realities of the other world, that he preferred, 
like the sainted Queen Blanche, to see his 



1 10 The New Sahits of 1888. 

own dear boy, whom he loved so deeply, die 
while yet innocent, rather than live to offend 
God. This wish found its expression in an 
ardent prayer^ which received a speedy 
answer ; for, a month after this, the little 
child went to heaven. Thus the last link 
which bound him to the world was broken. 
Already Alphonsus, after the vision of As- 
sumption Day, had made up his mind that he 
would ultimately become a religious. One 
night, whether in a dream or in imagination, 
he saw a dense flight of birds, black and 
hideous, which darkened the whole sky, until 
a beautiful w^hite dove, with the Holy Name 
written in silver on its breast, appeared in 
their midst. Three times they attacked it, 
and three times it struck them down. They 
fell like hail before its power, and the sur- 
vivors at last flew away. Father Martinez, 
convinced that it was a sign from God, 
begged long and earnestly in prayer for light 
to unriddle its meaning, and was at length 
convinced that it signified that his penitent 
was to be assailed by the foulest attacks of 
the devil, but that under the shield of the 
Society he was to come off victorious. It 
was, however, all in vain that St. Alphonsus 



St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, in 

sought admission from the Fathers at Segovia. 
His health seemed so utterly broken down 
by his excessive austerities as to make him 
useless as a lay-brother, while his education 
was too defective for one of his age to be 
received as a scholastic — as destined for Holy 
Orders. In one so convinced as was our 
Saint that he was called by God, no small 
difficulty could stay him. So he parted with 
all his fortune and divided his substance 
between his two sisters — his mother was then 
dead — only just keeping enough to help 
him on his long journey, and he left his 
country and kinsfolk to try if his old friend, 
Father Santander, who had been made rector 
of the Jesuit College at Valencia, would con- 
sent to receive him. 

1569. It was not the beauty of the garden 
of Spain that attracted the pilgrim to that 
bright and flower-girt city, but only the one 
wish to place his neck under the straight but 
sweet yoke of his Lord and Love. Father 
Santander, who knew his worth, encouraged 
him in this holy desire, but advised him to 
get ordained priest as soon as possible, so as 
.to obtain the more easily admission into the 
Society. Alphonsus accordingly took a situ- 



1 12 The New Saints of 1888, 

ation in the house of a noble lady as com- 
panion to her little son, whom he had to look 
after and to accompany to school. There, in 
spite of the jeers of the boys of his class, this 
man of nearly forty set himself, as St. Ignatius 
had done before him, to begin the elements 
of Latin grammar. But among the students 
he met with a man of his own age, seemingly 
of his own mind and given altogether to God. 
This new friend half persuaded Alphonsus 
to follow his strong inclination for a life 
of solitude and penance, to give up his 
cherished idea of entering the Society, and to 
go with him to spend his days as a hermit. 
Rodriguez went, in fact, during the holiday 
time, to see him at San Matteo, a large village 
many miles off, which he had chosen for his 
place of retirement. 

The conscience of Alphonsus, however, 
reproached him with his abandonment of 
God's call, and he returned hurriedly to Va- 
lencia and sought out Father Santander. F'S 
director showed him clearly the value of obe- 
dience and community life, and the peril he 
had run in following his own fancy. Rodri- 
guez threw himself on his knees, exclaiming : 
" Never again will I do my own will for the 



SL AlpJionsits Rodriguez, 113 

rest of my life. I put myself in your Rever- 
ence's hands, to do what you like with me ; 
you may settle whatever you please." St, 
Alphonsus, by the Father's advice, begged 
Our Lady to make his way clear, and then, full 
of conviction that his vocation was from God^ 
sought and obtained from the Father Provin- 
cial, Antony Cordeses, admission into the 
Society. The official consultors had three 
several times, almost to a man, just as the 
Fathers of Segovia and on the same grounds^ 
opposed his reception ; but the Provincial 
overruled their objection, and insisted that 
the Society must not shut its doors to a saint. 
He was, however, to enter as a lay-brother. 

This was the free choice of Brother Alphon- 
sus, whom God had called to be, with St, 
Felix of Cantalice and so many other saints^ 
a patron and a model to those called to a like 
high and humble calling. A few more years 
of application to study would certainly have 
enabled him to receive the priesthood, and 
Father Cordeses evidently could promise that 
he would then have been received into the , 
Society of Jesus as a priest. But guided by 
his humility and the desire promptly to follow, 
and at once, his vocation, he of his own 



114 The New Saints of 1888. 

accord accepted the station of a lay-brother — 
a life of humble hard work, which renounces 
the dignities and responsibilities of the priest- 
hood, and all that seems great in the eyes of 
men, to follow Our Lord closely in the hidden 
humility of the eighteen years. St. Alphonsus 
knew well the grandeur of labor, which the 
Carpenter of Nazareth has ennobled, which 
obedience exalts to the very highest of deeds, 
because it makes it the fulfilment of the 
mighty will of God, and which prayer trans- 
figures into a likeness of the life of those 
blessed spirits, who, no matter what their 
errand on earth, stand ever and forever 
before the Throne. As, in the old law, the 
children of Israel who were detained in the 
rear to guard the baggage shared by Divine 
law with the warriors of the van the spoils 
of the victory : so in the army of the Lord, 
under the banner of the Holy Name, those 
who work, in order to leave others free to 
preach and to teach, share equally with them 
in the everlasting rewards. 
. When evening had closed in on the eventful 
day of his acceptance, some one knocked at 
the shutters of Alphonsus' room. He half 
opened them and there, with a face distorted 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez. 115 

with rage, stood the hermit of San Matteo^ 
who poured out upon him a volley of re- 
proaches. Our Saint put the shutter to at 
once. He never again heard of his quondam 
friend, and the question naturally arises, Was 
not the whole but a stratagem of the devil ? 
So thought St. iVlphonsus, and after a night 
spent in prayer, he hurried off next morning, 
full of joy at his escape from the snare, to 
gain the goal of his most "ardent desires, the 
Jesuit College of St. Paul. 

II. Life in Religion. 

1571. It was on January 31, a day to be 
remembered by him during his forty years of 
religious life^ that St. Alphonsus was received 
as a novice. He went through the first part 
of his two years' probation either at Gandia, 
under the shadow of the castle of St. Francis 
Borgia, and in the college founded by that 
Saint, the first ever opened by the Society of 
Jesus, or, as some writers say, in the College 
at Valencia. He threw himself heart and 
soul into his new life, carrying out most 
faithfully his resolution to make a total 
sacrifice of his own will, and giving to work 
all the time not devoted to obligatory prayer 



1 16 The New Saints of 1888. 

and rest. He passed through the month's 
retreat, which forms such an important part 
of a Jesuit's training, and he came out of it 
so full of fervor that after only six months of 
his novitiate, in July or August of 1571, he 
was sent to the new college at Palma, the 
capital of the lovely island of Majorca. The 
house had only been opened some ten years 
before, and it had but a very small chapel, 
once a Jewish synagogue, attached to it, 
dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Sion, to 
which was added a school ; but this fell into 
disuse when the University of Palma was 
founded in 1483. A new and large church 
had been begun the very year of our Saint's 
arrival. Plenty of hard work was found for 
Alphonsus as a novice in helping the workmen 
at the building. His first fixed duties were 
those of under-sacristan and companion to 
the Fathers on their errands of charity. The 
Jesuit College was, when he arrived, a mere 
makeshift of many houses thrown into one, 
but it was by degrees enlarged, and at the 
same time the course of studies gradually 
grew from the first elements of grammar till 
it included the highest studies of philosophy 
and theology. It was not till April 5, 1573, 



SL a Iplionsits Rodriguez, 117 

two months beyond the usual duration of a 
Jesuit noviceship, that St. Alphonsus was 
permitted to take his vows. Probably his 
superiors still hesitated to receive him, as he 
did not seem to have the health or strength 
needed for his arduous duties! 

One of the very first objects that catches 
the traveller's eye, as he enters the Bay of 
Palma, is the circular castle of Belver, and, on 
the side of the hill which it crowns, a white 
stone chapel, restored of late years. A pious 
lady was the castellan of this royal fortress in 
the time of St. Alphonsus, and shortly after 
his vows the rector of the college, her con- 
fessor, took our holy Brother as his companion, 
when going to give to her the sacraments, as 
she was too old to come to church. The 
road was very steep, and though it was in 
February^ the sun shone fiercely. With 
difficulty Rodriguez climbed the height, and 
the perspiration poured from his face. But 
he forgot his pains and fatigues in the con- 
templation of the mysteries of the Rosary. 
Just at the very hardest part of the road, Our 
Lady appeared to him and gently wiped his 
brow with a cloth which she held in her 
blessed hands. Her tender charity filled 



1 1 8 The New Saints of 1888. 

Alphonsus with confusion, but so great was 
the joy that overflowed his heart, that he 
chmbed the rest of the path with ease. The 
white chapel recalls this incident of his life. 

In 1585, Alphonsus, being then fifty-four, 
bound himself to God by his last vows, and 
these vows were so dear to him, that he used 
to repeat them every day during Holy Mass 
at the Elevation. Another holy Brother, the 
cook of the house. Brother Diego Ruiz, the 
bosom friend and faithful imitator of our 
Saint, took his vows at the same time. Diego 
never once asked for a day's holiday all the 
thirty years that he worked in the kitchen 
He managed to hear every Mass said in the 
college church, spite of his morning's work, 
for the tribune was so near the kitchen that 
he could slip down as soon as the priest's 
Communion was over and get ready the 
simple breakfast for him, so as to return in 
time for the next Mass. St. Alphonsus as- 
sisted at his happy death, in 1601, and began 
at once saying his beads, as ordered by rule, 
for the soul of his departed Brother, till Our 
Lady showed to him Brother Diego safe by 
her side in Heaven. 

St. Alphonsus had a like consolation as he 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez, 119 

knelt by the bed-side of Father Coch, the 
rector, who had received him on his first 
coming to the island, and who died in July, 
1587, in his third term of office. For at least 
six or seven minutes he saw the heavens open 
and an array of blessed spirits, waiting to 
escort his venerated superior to his well 
earned reward. 

After his vows, Rodriguez was made hall 
porter, a post demanding constant attention, 
considerable fatigue, and a large stock of pa- 
tience ; and this post he held till old age 
positively obliged him to have a helper, when 
he gradually gave up this employment for 
lighter work. At the college gate he was 
thrown across numbers of people of every 
class of life. Clergy coming to confession or 
to see the Fathers ; boys and young men, lay 
and clerical, attending the college lectures ; 
the poor who sought for alms ; gentlemen 
and their wives, — and Majorca teemed with 
Spanish hidalgoes both proud and rich — and 
townsfolk of all degrees. All of these came 
within the influence of the lay-brother's holi- 
ness, and his whole life was a real apostolate 
for souls. Even learned theologians and re- 
ligious looked to him for counsel, and later on 



120 Tlie New Saints of iS88. 

in life he formed to sanctity, among many 
others, the apostle of the negroes, St. Peter 
Claver,"^ and Father Jerome de Moranta, who 
was to give his life for Christ in jNIexico. 
Numbers were drawn by the words and ex- 
ample of the holy porter to embrace religious 
life, so that there was hardly a vocation on 
the island at his time that was not owing in 
some way or other to his saintly influence. 

St. Peter Claver owed to the exhortations 
and prayers of his friend not only much of 
his spiritual knowledge and marvellous holi- 
ness, but his vocation to the foreign missions, 
w^hich made him what he became, the Xavier 
of South America. To St. Alphonsus he 
went, with the leave of his superiors, as to a 
director of his conscience, and the humble old 
man dared not refuse a trust which God had 
by an interior voice charged him to accept. 
The privilege of meeting the sainted porter 
of Majorca caused the young religious to re- 
gard the order to go to the College of Major- 
ca as a special grace ; and during the three 
years he spent on the island in the study of 
philosophy, St. Peter went quickly forward, 
under so sure a guide, up the steep road of 
* See his '' Life,*' page 51. 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez. I2i 

sanctity. To Rodriguez was shown in his 
prayer the glorious throne prepared for his 
pupil in the courts of heaven, side by side 
with St. Francis Xavier ; and to him were 
revealed the great things which his apt scholar 
was to do in the Indies. 

When Claver left Majorca for Spain, he 
carried away as a precious treasure, and he 
kept during his long travels, a little MS. work 
on spiritual matters, written by St, Alphonsus' 
own hand, the only keepsake which his rule 
allowed. In his last sickness one of his great 
consolations was to receive the small Spanish 
Life of his dear friend, the first ever printed, 
of which — the work is very rare — a copy is 
to be found in the British Museum. 

By order of his Superiors, St. Alphonsus 

composed, toward the close of his life, a too 

short memoir of the favors bestowed on him 

by God, and from that time twice a year he 

continued to give an account of his conscience 

in writing. Besides this he wrote several 

treatises on spiritual matters, which form 

three goodly volumes, full of great light in 

heavenly things.* 

* Our Saint is not to be confounded with his well known 
namesake. Father Alphonsus Rodrig^uez, the author of Christian 
Perfection. 



122 The New Saints of 1888. 

The witnesses to his canonization, who 
knew him in his post as porter and who 
testified to his hoHness, are most numerous. 

Whenever he was not called away by duty, 
he spent his time in praying fervently before 
a statue of Our Lord tied to the pillar, or 
before a picture of Our Lady, both of which 
were in the porter's lodge ; nor was he dis- 
tracted by the troops of college boys who 
came in and out. Or he would retire into a 
little inner room, and there kneel, often with 
out- stretched arms, at the foot of a great 
wooden cross which stood there : or, again, 
his favorite spot w^asa little window or squint, 
which looked out on the Blessed Sacrament^ 
where formerly a door had led into the 
church. There, gazing on the tabernacle, 
he loved to spend his leisure moments in 
half-extatic prayer. Oftentimes he was found 
with his eyes filled with tears^ and a light 
streaming from his face. The figure of Our 
Blessed Lord, which was said to have spoken 
to him, was long kept as a precious relic. 

His life was, in fact,' a constant circle of 
prayer and work, or rather one unbroken 
round of prayer and penance. He rose by 
permission, until too old to do so, two hours 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez, 123 

before the rest of the community, and he 
always thought it was his angel guardian, 
who took care to awake him. At once he 
roused himself from sleep, and prayers of 
thanksgiving and love, resolutions of giving 
the day to God's service, started to his heart 
and to his lips, and with the sign of the Cross 
he began the Te Deum. He recited the 
words, '' Grant us, O Lord, to keep us with- 
out sin," as if that day was to be his last. 
Then he said the Litany of our Lady. 

Then followed his meditation, in which his 
soul at once flew up to God, as an arrow to 
its mark. When very old and ill, his superiors 
more than once bade him to give up the ap- 
plication of his mind to heavenly things, for 
fear of tiring his head, but prayer was so 
natural to him that his efforts to obey and 
refrain from it cost him more pain than re- 
lief. In fact, he grew more and more closely 
united to God, till even sleep ceased to 
separate him from his Beloved. Nor did this 
union ever hinder him from doing his work, 
or from attending to acts of charity. Even 
when lost to outside things in his constant 
raptures, obedience always at once brought 
him to himself. When the door bell rang, it 



124 Tlie New Saints of 1888. 

was to him the voice of God. '* Here I am, 
Lord," was his quick reply, as he hurried to 
the gate ; and he welcomed as God whoever 
came, however importunate, or rude, or in- 
considerate they might be. 

Some of the witnesses at the process or 
official examinations about his virtues, with a 
view to his canonization, held after his death, 
acknowledged that, when they were boys and 
attending the college, they used, as lads will 
do, to amuse themselves by runaway rings, 
and then out of sight would watch the holy 
porter as he came to answer the door. They 
must have been ashamed of themselves, for 
they never saw a sign of annoyance in his 
face nor in his manner when he looked out of 
the gate. 

Whenever he had to leave the house, Al- 
phonsus had learnt from his rector. Father 
Coch, always to make a visit first to the 
college church, where he begged his Sacra- 
mental Lord that he might die then and 
there rather than offend Him while outside. 
As he walked the streets of the gay and 
brilliant city, neither then nor elsewhere did 
he ever look a woman deliberately in the face. 

It was, and perhaps is still, the custom at 



SL a Iphonsus Rodriguez, 125 

Majorca for the server to give some water to 
those who had just communicated, and as 
St. Alphonsus constantly served at the altar, 
he had to do this continually to those of the 
devout sex ; but so strictly did he keep his 
bargain with his eyes that the ladies used to 
call him the 'Mead brother.'* Not content 
with closely examining his conscience twice a 
day, he never let an hour pass without calling 
it to an account. When he went to his meals, 
his mind was so filled with thoughts of God 
and His Blessed Mother, that he seemed to 
have lost any taste for food, and had often to 
be bidden by his superiors to eat. One day 
a dish was sent in by mistake, made of some 
kind of gourd utterly unfit for the table, and 
as nauseous as it was unwholesome, but love 
of penance made him attack his portion with a 
greediness quite unusual to him. The Father 
minister, the second in command, had no 
sooner tasted it than he whispered to the 
rector^ " There is death in this dish," and the 
superior, seeing how fast St. Alphonsus was 
devouring the nasty pottage, sent some one 
down to him at once to stop him. So, too, 
when some boiled eggs were brought him 
which had served as nest eggs, he took them 



126 The New Saints of i 

without a word, though the smell from them 
sickened those at his side. So little usually 
did he eat, so carefully did he abstain from 
any dainty or delicacy, that his meals were 
like a perpetual fast. 

At recreation, as at all other times, when 
charity compelled him to speak, he was never 
heard to utter an idle word, and if the con- 
versation turned on subjects of a useless kind, 
he retired into himself and became so ab- 
sorbed in God as to seem to fall asleep, but 
he woke up at once when his brothers began 
to talk of his favorite subjects, of God or holy 
things. 

In addition to his other duties, Alphonsus 
had the care of the novice lay-brothers, and 
he daily read to them some spiritual reading 
for half an hour. His devotion when serving 
Mass was contagious, and he was eagerly 
sought for by the Fathers, as they always ex- 
perienced special favors when he was by their 
side, and people used to flock to hear the 
Mass which he chanced to be serving. Sev- 
eral times a bright light shone out from his 
face as he knelt at the altar, as a token of 
the invisible graces which were his at that 
sacred time. 



St. Alphonsits Rodriguez. 127 

Out of the love of Jesus, love of His Bles- 
sed Mother grew naturally and necessarily. 
This had been noted in him when even a 
child, and it only developed with a wondrous 
power when he was enrolle.d in the Society of 
her Son. In all his needs he turned to her 
with a certainty which never deceived him, 
to gain whatever he wanted for himself or for 
others. Besides his Rosary, his favorite de- 
votion was the well known Little Office of 
the Immaculate Conception, of which he may 
almost be called the author. Copies of the 
Office were then very rare, and at the dis- 
tinct wish of Our Lady he loved to write it 
out, to get others to do so, and to give them 
away to all whom he thought able to recite it 
daily, a practice which he most strongly rec- 
ommended. Our Blessed Lady approved so 
highly of his zeal and of this beautiful devo- 
tion, that the circular letter which announced 
his death made note of this, and the Office 
was at once printed * in different cities of 
Europe. The favor bestowed on our Saint 
on Assumption Day at Segovia was only one 
of many like graces given to him on a 
feast doubly dear to a child of the Society, as 
at once the true birthday of its Queen, and of 



128 The New Saints of 1888, 

the Order itself, which had its beginning on 
that day in the vaults of Montmartre, at Paris. 
Mary's Immaculate Conception was honored 
in a special way by the good people of ]vla- 
jorca. Their great hero, the genius Ray- 
mund Lully, had years before defended it in 
a learned work ; and a bishop of our Saint's 
time had instituted most solemn festivities in 
its honor. When in a theological discussion 
its truth had been called in question, Alphon- 
sus, always so meek and so reserved, seemed 
almost to lose all control of himself, as with 
a holy anger he argued in its favor. He de- 
clared very solemnly that one of the reasons 
why the Society had been called into being 
was to defend this myster}-. He was never 
tired of commending to others a confidence in 
her, whose love and power had never failed 
him. One of his favorite aspirations was, 
*' Jesus and ]\Iary, objects of my tenderest 
love, may I suffer and may I die for love of 
you ! " 

When past seventy, Alphonsus became so 
feeble that his superiors relieved him from his 
regular duties as porter. But he continued 
working at any work that he was able to do, 
as helping the porter on busy days, or sweep- 



vS/. Alphonsus Rodriguez, 129 

ing the house, or working in the kitchen, till 
the very last years of his life. He clung, as 
to a privilege, to his turn to clean the plates 
and dishes after meals. And even when 
unable to kneel, he obtained, as a great favor, 
leave to serve Mass standing, in a private 
chapel. 

When his future biographer and his faithful 
disciple, Father Colin, was leaving Majorca 
to complete his divinity studies in Spain, he 
went to say good-bye to our Saint. It was a 
Saturday evening in 1616, and he found his 
old friend confined to his room and seated on 
his bed, but so absorbed in God that he was 
able to throw himself at his feet and rever- 
ently to kiss them without being observed by 
him. As his last advice before they parted 
forever in this life, Brother Alphonsus said 
to the young religious, that if ever he wished 
to obtain anything from God, he should ask 
it confidently from Our Lady. " Be very 
devout to her, and be sure all will go well 
with you." 

Such was the power of our Saint's prayers 
that at every emergency his religious brethren 
and people in the city had recourse to him. 
But when obedience added its authority to 



130 The New Saints of 1888, 

the dictates of charity, and he put forth all 
his strength, Heaven seemed to be unable to 
refuse his petitions. Wonderful were the 
cures wrought, extraordinary the conversions 
brought about, strange the change in hearts. 
The very elements seemed to obey him. One 
8th of December, a terrible tornado swept 
over the city and the neighborhood ; hardly 
had St. Alphonsus, at the bidding of his 
superior, said three " Hail Marys," before all 
was calm and bright as before. 

The poor man of Assisi, the seraphic St. 
Francis, had always a special place in our 
Saint's affection. His simplicity, his early 
life spent in business, his refusal, out of 
humility, of the priestly office, found a loving 
likeness in Alphonsus. To his Father, St. 
Ignatius, he was naturally bound by the 
strongest ties, and when on one octave day of 
his feast the rector bade him tell the praises 
of their great founder from the reading desk 
in the refectory, he amazed the community 
by his eloquent enthusiasm and by the deep 
insight he betrayed into the Saint's virtues. 
But there was no narrowness in his heart, and 
the founders of the various religious orders, 
St. Bruno, St. Dominic, all had a share in his 



SL Alp honsus Rodriguez, 131 

affectionate reverence. Besides this, he had 
placed each hour of the twenty-four under a 
special patron. St. Joseph, his guardian angel, 
the patrons of Spain, St. James and St. Isidore, 
were among the number. 

The prayers of our humble Saint were more 
powerful than the preaching of the missionary 
Fathers. The prosperous town of Seller, rich 
with its gold-laden orange-trees and its land- 
locked bay of blue, had become a den of 
thieves, and was torn with fierce faction 
fights. Twelve lives had already been lost in 
its streets and neighborhood. Each house 
was a fortress, and the townsfolk mounted 
guard with arms in their hands. Two Fathers 
of the Society, at the request of the Viceroy, 
were sent to give a mission as the only hope 
of gaining peace to the blood-stained town. 
Not more than three or four sermons had 
been preached, when a woman, whose husband, 
son, and father-in-law had been murdered in 
the frays, came forward, and, by a public 
deed, forgave the assassins. All flocked to 
the sacraments, and the Fathers were chosen 
by each party as arbiters and final judges. 
No one doubted that these wonderful results 
were owing to the prayers of our Saint, to 



132 The New Saints of 1888, 

whom, in fact, Our Lady appeared and prom- 
ised that all would turn out well, and Alphon- 
sus had told this to the rector before the 
good news reached Palma. 

Lay-brother though he was, his superiors 
used, as has been said, to make him give an 
exhortation in the refectory on some of the 
great feasts, under color of an exercise of 
obedience and humility, and though he had 
little time for preparation, but a quarter of an 
hour or so, he filled all hearts with the love 
of the virtue on which he preached. *^ That 
is all very fine," said a Provincial who hap- 
pened once to be present ; " practise what 
you preach; come down and kiss the feet of 
the community." This act of self-abasement 
and obedience was a great pleasure to our 
Saint. From the very outset of his conversion 
the foundations of humility had been sunk so 
deep that no exaltation, however great, could 
shake the profound and unchangeable convic- 
tion he had. of his utter nothingness. He had 
received, in reward for his efforts of self- 
abasement, so clear an insight into the misery 
of his own nature, that no reverence from his 
superiors, no respect from the great ones of 
the world, none of the constant celestial 



St. Alphonsits Rodriguez, 133 

favors he was receiving — so that his Hfe 
seemed rather that of a dweller in heaven 
than that of one on earth, — nothing of all 
this could ever expose him to the slightest 
movement of self-complacency. Whilst he 
regarded his religious brethren as angels in 
the flesh, he fancied that the stench of his own 
baseness rose from his soul and tainted the 
very air in which he lived. And all through 
his life each revelation, each apparition of 
God and His Blessed Mother, filled him with 
fear, lest, being so unworthy of such privi- 
leges, the whole might be, like his adventure 
with the hermit of San Matteo, but a delusion 
of the enemy. 

Obedience, the virtue of a Jesuit, was nec- 
essarily the most conspicuous in St. Alphon- 
sus. It was to give up entirely his own will 
and to follow that of God that he had entered 
religion ; and so thoroughly had he realized 
the fact that the superior's order was the 
clearest manifestation of God's will, that he 
obeyed it with the simple heroism of Abraham, 
knowing that in perfect obedience was the 
highest perfection and the loftiest wisdom. 
Whatever he was told to do, he did at once 
and with the greatest pleasure. His clear 



134 Tlie New Saints of iS88, ■| 

vision of God in the person of his superiors 
made him do things which to the world must 
appear folly, for he never reasoned, but was 
filled with one thought, that in hearing the 
voice^ of no matter what superior^ he heard 
the voice of God. Father Alvarez, his rector, 
merely to test him, told him, when past 
seventy, to go to the Indies. It was then 
late in the day and dark. Alphonsus at once 
left the room, just as he was, and went 
straight to the porter to ask him to unlock 
the gate. ^^ Where are you going, Brother ? " 
said the porter. '^ To India, for the rector 
has sent me." But the porter, who had been 
warned before, refused to open the gate^ 
because the Saint had not his ** paper of 
obedience " — the passport of a religious, and 
he sent him back to the rector. '^ Where 
were you thinking of going ? " some one asked 
Alphonsus, "' when told to start for the 
Indies ? " ^* I should have gone to the port, ■! 
and if I should have found a vessel, I should 
have embarked ; if not I should have walked 
as far as I could into the sea and only have 
turned back when I could go no farther, and 
so have come home again." 

So, another time, when the students on an 



SL Alphonsiis Rodriguez, 135 

exhibition day were going to act a play in the 
college, the rector, to prevent all the seats 
being filled by the first comers, gave strict 
orders to Alphonsus, who was then the 
porter, on no account to open the gate before 
the time. The Viceroy Manriquez and his 
brother, the Bishop of Palma, with their 
attendants, came before the hour fixed, but 
St. Alphonsus would not on any account let 
them in, spite of the angry expostulations of 
the retinue of the illustrious guests, till the 
rector came down and explained the lay- 
brother's conduct, much to the edification 
both of the Bishop and Don Manriquez. 

These were but the extraordinary actions 
of a life which was, by its entirely super- 
natural character, in perfect harmony with 
them ; so faithful to every order, to every 
rule, that no one ever knew Rodriguez to 
swerve a hair's breadth from them ; and his 
superiors were always quite at their ease 
when they had given him anything to do, 
because they knew it would certainly be 
carried out. 

Obedience sternly restrained Alphonsus in 
the war he waged with his body, but up to 
extreme old age, nay, to his very death, he 



136 The New Saiftts of 1888. 

treated it as ruthlessly as he could. Besides 
sharing in Our Lord's Passion, God had made 
him acquainted with all the horrors of death. 
The memory of all this was a constant motive 
for penance. Till he was sixty, he never lay 
on a mattress, but took his short rest in a 
chair, or, when he was allowed, sleeping on 
the bare boards, and at times on broken pot- 
sherds. He never leant on the back of his 
chair ; he never went near a fire in the short 
but sharp winter, nor in the glorious spring or 
autumn would he pluck a flower or a fruit, 
when he passed the day with the community 
at their country-house of Our Lady of the 
Mount. During the last two years of his 
hfe the barber^s lad took a brutal pleasure in 
hacking the poor old Brother's face ; but 
not only did he make no complaint, but he 
gave himself up by choice to the inflictions of 
the brutal boy. God, however, took the 
cause in hand. The wretch perished by an 
assassin's hand. The Bishop of Majorca^ 
Sedeiio Bauza, happened to come to preach 
at the college, and the rector ordered a bed 
to be made up for him to rest awhile. As the 
house was under-furnished^ the mattress of 
the old and decrepit Brother was borrowed. 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez. I'^'j 

and next morning it was found that he had 
slept with nothing but a sheet between him- 
self and the boards which formed the bed- 
stead. Far from being annoyed, St. Alphonsus 
tried to persuade the * infirmarian not to rob 
him of the luxury of such a mortification, 
though he promptly yielded at the voice of 
obedience and took back his mattress. So 
too, on the occasion of the Forty Hours 
during carnival time, his only chair was 
carried off, as the church was full, and places 
were found for persons of position in the 
tribunes and corridors. Though the chairs 
were piled up in one of the tribunes when 
done with, and could easily have been 
obtained for the asking, yet for a whole year 
the poor old man, he was past seventy, went 
without anything on which to sit or to put 
his clothes. Nor did he get his chair back 
till after the Forty Hours of the following 
year, when the others were taken and restored 
again to their proper places. 

But the cross, the school of virtue, the 
perfect mirror of Our Lord, came to him 
under far more terrible forms. In the 
earliest days of his religious life, he was 
tormented with the fear of losinor his voca- 



138 The New Saints of 1888, 

tion, owing to his fancied unfitness, till God 
gave him deep peace by a revelation of his 
future perseverance. Then the fear of hell 
and a clear vision of his sins, without a gleam 
of comfort, tortured his soul. He had asked 
for a thorough knowledge of himself ; but the 
vision overwhelmed him. God, however, 
took pity on him and after a few days filled 
him with light and confidence. But far more 
awful was the struggle that followed, when, by 
God's permission, the demon of impurity, for 
the long space of seven years, by every strat- 
agem and by the most foul and seductive 
attacks, laid siege to his soul. All help from 
on high seemed to be withdrawn, and though 
the agony to him was far more bitter than 
death, and though he would gladly have been 
burnt alive rather than be brought face to face 
with sights so repulsive, his faith and love in 
his Divine Spouse never wavered. The foul 
spirits had boasted to him that they would 
never cease until they had made him give in ; 
but our Blessed Lord and His Blessed 
Mother at length appeared and freed him 
from these vile attacks. 

The morning's meditation was the very 
breath of Alphonsus* day, and as an old 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez, 139 

writer of his life puts it^ the devil determined 
to force Bethulia to yield by cutting off the 
supply of living waters. Up to this time his 
prayer had been most fervent. Now, the 
moment our Saint used to kneel down to his 
prayer, however well he might have been 
before, his whole body was tortured by a 
mysterious malady, which left him at once 
when the time for meditation was over. 
Oftentimes he fell prostrate on the ground, 
as though he was on the point of death, so 
acute was the torture. During the whole 
period of his temptations this went on, yet 
never did he relax in his diligence, much less 
abandon his prayer. 

At last both trials ended, and the old 
delights came back, as he communed with his 
God. Still his crucifixion was not over. As, 
doubled with age, he was slowly going up the 
stairs of the college, in a preternatural way he 
was thrust backwards and flew through the air 
till he fell so heavily on the next landing that 
two students, who had seen what had hap- 
pened, rushed to ring the college bell and 
brought the community out of their rooms. 
They all supposed that St. Alphonsus was 
dead, and were surprised to find nothing but 



I40 The New Saints of 1888. 

two slight scars on his bald head. But he 
lay in acute tortures for some nights. He 
told his rector that he only compared these 
pains to being cut to pieces by razors, when 
on a sudden his pains ceased and all trace of 
his wounds, w^hich had till then remained, 
disappeared. This was only the prelude to 
the last and most terrible attack, for which 
our dear Lord had prepared him by an in- 
terior voice. Our Saint was then abandoned, 
like Job, to the rage of the devil, and like 
St. Colette, St. Hedwige, and St. Guthlac, the 
hermit of Croyland, he endured at the hands 
of the devil all the pangs of the most cruel 
martyrdoms. He Who sent him these trials 
could not but now and again console His 
suffering and patient victim. One night, as 
St. Alphonsus offered himself up a willing 
holocaust, our Blessed Lord and His holy 
Mother appeared to him in such a flood 
of light as to eclipse the lamp which was 
burning on the table, and they deigned to 
stay in sweet converse with the holy lay- 
brother. The Father in the next room, 
surprised to hear the strict silence of religious 
rule broken by voices at that hour, got up 
and opened St. Alphonsus' door, and the 



5/. Alpho7isus Rodriguez. 141 

vision vanished. But our Saint, drunk with 
the wine of heavenly joy, seemed transfigured, 
and all remarked the power of his words on 
the following day, like those of one come 
down from heaven. 

1615. In his last years, constant and 
severe illness kept the old man to his bed, but 
even then he used to send the infirmarian to 
beg his superior to allow him to fast, and to 
use his customary austerities ; and when able, 
he loved to be carried to the tribune to hear 
sermons in the church or to pour out his soul 
before the Blessed Sacrament. The devils 
again attacked him with physical tortures 
of the most awful kind, and with thoughts 
of distrust in God, but he found strength 
and comfort in a picture of Our Lady he ever 
kept close to him, the only treasure to which 
he clung, and it was but a poor old print. 

III. His End in Peace. 

1617. His rector. Father Julian, was down 
with rheumatic fever in the last May of the 
Brother's life, and as the infirmarian was car- 
rying Alphonsus to Mass, his superior bade 
them bring him into his room and begged 
him to ask our Immaculate Mother to restore 



142 The New Saints of 1888. 

him to health. He spent the whole night in 
prayer, and the rector was able to say his 
Mass on the following morning. St. Alphon- 
sus was confined to his bed for almost a 
twelvemonth, and from August had been in 
such exquisite pain that he had to lie perfect- 
ly still on one side. But he refused any al- 
leviation or delicacy, saying, ^' Believe me, 
these sweets are bitter and my sufferings are 
very sweet.'' Nor did he cease any of his de- 
votions, even lamenting with tears that he 
could no longer practise his much prized 
penances. Once for a brief space his memory 
was so completely lost that he could not 
even get through an Our Father, and he was 
entirely dependent on the charity of any who 
suggested prayers to him. Three times a 
week he went to confession, and, as he had 
been accustomed to do for many years, re- 
ceived his Lord with the greatest reverence, 
getting the infirmarian to prop him up in 
the bed. With his own feeble hand he took 
off his night-cap, as his Creator entered his 
cell. He loved to be left alone after Com- 
munion to make a very long thanksgiving. 
God evidently revealed to him the date of his 
death, but with his usual modesty he endeav- 



SL Alphonsus Rodriguez, 143 

ored to conceal this knowledge. He, how- 
ever, unwittingly betrayed his secret. The 
minister of the house, Father Michael Redo, 
who had to make his annual retreat just at 
that time, was anxious not to go to the usual 
place of retirement— Our Lady of the Mount, 
a mile and a half outside of the city, — and 
obtained leave to make it at home, so as to be 
present in case of Alphonsus's death. When 
the sainted brother was told this, he ex- 
pressed his gratitude, because Father Redo 
could pray for him and be with him' when he 
died. Thus it became known that within the 
eight days he would go to God. 

On the 29th of October, after St. Alphonsus 
had received holy Communion, all his pains 
ceased in an instant and he looked better in 
health than ever he had done. His face, 
hitherto always pale, was now lit up with 
color, and looked beautiful, nay, transfigured. 
He passed three days almost without opening 
his eyes and without a single sign of recog- 
nition, except when the Brother Infirmarian 
put a little broth to his lips, when he opened 
his mouth and swallowed it without difficulty. 
His pulse was strong and regular. To all 
who saw him it was evident that he was in an 



144 Tlie New Saints of 1888, 

ecstasy. Now and again there broke from his 
lips, " My most sweet Jesus, my best of 
Mothers ! " After midnight, on the eve of 
All Saints, he suddenly aw^akened to con- 
sciousness, and all his tortures came back. 
His pulse began to fail and the community 
hastened to his bedside. In a voice that 
wrung the hearts of all^ he repeated over and 
over again the Holy Name. Then, at half- 
past twelve, when the prayers for the Agoniz- 
ing had ended, he looked around — a thing so 
unusual in him — with eyes widely opened, 
bright with the light of another world and full 
of joy, upon all those present, and bending 
over to kiss the crucifix to which he clung, he 
uttered a protracted '' Jesu," and went to keep 
the feast of All Saints in heaven. 

The body, which assumed a beauty which 
it had never possessed in life, was placed in a 
coffin and laid out in his room on the first 
floor. The thumb and forefinger of his right 
hand were found to have grown callous with 
the constant counting of his beads. The cell 
is now turned into a chapel and contains a 
statue of the Saint, made not long after his 
death. The news spread quickly that Alphon- 
sus had passed away, and the college was 



St, Alphonsiis Rodriguez, 145 

crowded with all that was most distinguished 
in the island. . But as the house was closed 
to the devout sex, they begged so hard to be 
allowed to gaze on one who had always been 
considered as a saint, that about one in the 
afternoon the body of St. Alphonsus was 
taken to the Church, and placed on a very 
lofty catafalque, and guarded by some Jesuit 
and Dominican Fathers from the pious lar- 
cenies of the immense crowd. Every one 
wished to have a rosary, or handkerchief 
which had touched his remains^ and the 
Fathers had difficulty to content the surging 
mass of people which thronged around. The 
clergy, secular and regular, of the city came 
uninvited to chant the dirge. When it was 
over, one of the Fathers got up into the pulpit 
and tried to persuade the crowd to allow 
the body to be buried and to vacate the 
church, so as to make it ready for the feast of 
the morrow. But all in vain. It was only 
after nine at night that the Fathers were able, 
and that with great difficulty, to carry the re- 
mains back into the house. When the body 
was removed, the church was cleared and 
locked up, and to avoid any further demon- 
strations of respect, our Saint was committed 



146 The New Saints of 1888. 

in perfect privacy to his grave, beside the altar 
of the Assumption, shortly after midnight. 

In spite of the unwillingness of the Fathers 
to allow what in their eyes was contrary to the 
simplicity of religious, the authorities, ecclesi- 
astical and civil, of Palma insisted on a mag- 
nificent funeral taking place on All Souls' 
Day ; and in presence of a dense crowd, 
Father Torrens, the intimate friend and 
director of Alphonsus, in a discourse of an 
hour and a half, lifted in part the veil which 
had hitherto concealed the hidden holiness of 
St. Alphonsus. 

But God spoke still more authoritatively by 
the numberless signs and miracles wrought 
by the relics and through the intercession of 
our Saint. During his life-time, spite of all 
his efforts to conceal his miraculous powers, 
his gift of prophecy and of healing diseases 
of soul and body had been known far and 
wide. Immediately after his death, in every 
part of the Catholic world, his name was 
glorified by startling prodigies ; and the 
chapel where his body reposed was soon cov- 
ered with ex votes and inscriptions recording 
the favors obtained by his prayers. The 
Bishop, who had known him in life, allowed 



SL AlphonsMS Rodriguez, \a;j 

the Saint's portrait to be exposed for venera- 
tion over his tomb, till such time as the De- 
crees of Urban VIII., forbidding all such 
signs of honor to any one who had not been 
formally beatified, caused the picture to be 
removed. But petition was at once made for 
the cause of his beatification, and in 1632 our 
Saint was solemnly chosen as one of the pa- 
trons of Majorca. It was not, however, till 
1760 that the cause was so far advanced as to 
win for Alphonsus the title of Venerable. 
Only seven years later, the cruel decree of 
Charles III., of Spain^ tore the Jesuit Fathers 
from each of their houses throughout the 
Spanish dominions, and on one and the same 
night banished them from the kingdom and 
its colonies. 

The Bishop of Palma of the time took 
measures at once to protect the body and the 
other relics of the Saint, and the Society^ on 
its restoration, returned once more to the col- 
lege and church of Monte Sion, in 181 6, to 
find them in perfect safety ; and fresh efforts 
were made to procure the beatification. 

But Spain was convulsed with civil wars 
and only in September, 1824, did the glad 
news reach Majorca that Leo XII., on the 



148 The New Saints of i8S8, 

31st of July, the feast of St. Ignatius, had, in 
the house of the Gesii at Rome, placed Al- 
phonsus on the list of the beatified. The 
Society had then for a short time only recov- 
ered possession of the Church and College 
after its third expulsion, and splendid festivi- 
ties commemorated the event. The rarest 
marbles and jasper were used in the construc- 
tion of the Saint's shrine. It is in the severe 
classical style of the period, and consists of 
the tomb, containing the relics of the Saint, 
over which is a sort of dome supported on 
pillars, while a statue of St. Alphonsus in 
glory rises over all. Through the crystal in 
front of the shrine you may see a waxen 
image of the Saint, containing his. bones, clad 
in black velvet, with a precious crown on his 
head. The church is no longer in the hands 
of the Society. 

To our great Pontiff Leo XIII. was re- 
served the privilege of solemnly canonizing 
the humble Brother. On Sunday, the 15th of 
January, 1888, St. Alphonsus, and his spiritual 
child, St. Peter Claver, were, with St. John 
Berchmans and the Seven Sainted Founders 
of the Order of the Servites, joined in one 
common honor. 




the: seven sainxkd koxjnders ok 
the servites. 

150 




Jfonnkrs ai t^e BtxbxttB. 

h Introduction. 

ijHE Order of Servites has a wonderful 
origin, the holy Mother of God 
herself being identified with its 
foundation ; and now that its seven founders 
are numbered among the saints, the faithful 
will be interested to learn the first beginnings 
of this Order of Our Lady. The following 
narration is drawn from the most reliable 
sources. 

In the lovely city of Florence, no less fa- 
mous for its churches and palaces than for 
the illustrious men to whom it has given birth 
or who have made it their home — in this 
delightful part of Italy, the dwelling-place of 
St. Philip Neri and of St. Philip Benitius, and 
the witness of the sad ending of the brilliant 
life of Savonarola, an association of men was 
formed in the year 1103, the main object of 
which was to sing the praises of Our Lady ; 



152 The New Saints of 1888, 

Whence it was called " The Brotherhood of 
Praisers" (Laudantium). 

Under the protection of the august Queen 
of heaven, this pious association grew and 
flourished wonderfully. Among its members 
iat one time were seven Florentine merchants, 
whose names were Bonfilius Monaldius, Bona- 
junctaManetti, Manettus Antellensis, Amideus 
de Amideis, Uguccio Uguccionius, Alexius 
Falconeriis, and Sosteneus de Sosteneis, 
men distinguished from their youth by their 
piety and the purity of their lives. 

It was on the feast of the Assumption, 1223, 
the birthday also of St. Philip Benitius, the 
greatest benefactor of the Servites, while 
assembled in their chapel with the other 
members of their confraternity to sing the 
praises of Our Lady, that these seven holy 
men were conscious of a common, irresistible 
impulse to leave the world and go into seclu- 
sion, there to give themselves up wholly to the 
service of God and His virginal Mother. 
When the meeting adjourned, leaving them 
alone in the church, they noted the holy fire 
that burned in one another's eyes, but none 
dared give utterance to the feelings that over- 
came them all. Finally, the oldest broke the 



The Seven Founders of the Servites. 153 

solemn silence, and then, wonderful to relate! 
each told of the supernatural impulse which 
stirred him to leave the world, to do penance 
for his sins^ and under the protection of the 
Blessed Virgin to strive for perfection. With 
clasped hands they promised one another to 
follow these unmistakable signs from Heaven. 
Their resolution was to be carried into effect 
on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed 
Virgin. As this feast drew near they went to 
Bishop Ardingus of Florence, a learned and 
holy man, laid their plan before him, and 
humbly asked his blessing on their undertak- 
ing, which he freely gave and wished them 
every success. He encouraged them to cor- 
respond to the designs of Almighty God, to 
do penance, and to pray for the welfare of 
the diocese and of the whole Church. 

Filled with confidence in God, and submit- 
ting themselves to His divine will, they took 
up their abode in a humble house in the 
neighboring village of Camaritia, and there 
began, in common, a life of voluntary poverty, 
and the practice of the virtues. 

As they were all in the prime of life, none 
having reached the age of thirty — were in 
good worldly circumstances, and had every- 



154 ^^^^ ^^'^ Saints of 1888, 

thing to make life attractive, their retirement 
from the world excited much comment and 
set many to thinking. Of the seven holy 
men, two were married, two single, and three 
were widowers. The wives of the married 
ones piously consented to their husbands' 
entering the religious state, and even retired 
themselves to a convent, where they led holy 
lives ; certainly a striking example of divine 
grace ! As the Franciscan and Benedictine 
Orders had been but a short time established, 
and were in a flourishing condition, and were 
attracting to their ranks many youthful 
recruits, our Seven Saints had no thought of 
founding a new Order, but the Blessed Moth- 
er of God took that upon herself, as we shall 
see. 

II. Seven Apparitions. 

Those who doubt the' truth of miracles 
should close this book at once, as they will 
find in it nothing to interest them. 

Our Lady knew perfectly well how to begin 
the foundation of an Order. She not only 
found the proper instruments, but carried her 
work to a happy conclusion. 

Her first appearance to our Seven Saints 



The Sainted Founders of the Servites. 1 5 5 

was while they were still in the world. She 
appeared to them radiant with celestial glory 
and surrounded by an angelic host, and ex- 
horted them to leave the world for a solitary 
and penitential life, and to persuade others to 
follow their example. They were deeply 
impressed by this first apparition. The 
second occurred on the day of their reception 
into the " Brotherhood of Praisers," on which 
occasion the Blessed Virgin appeared to each 
of the seven in his own home. She favored 
them with a third apparition when they re- 
moved to the humble house at Camaritia, and 
still a fourth, this time telling them to go to 
Monte Senario^ which is about three leagues 
from Florence. They departed for the Mount 
on May 21, 1234, and there gave themselves 
up to prayer and meditation. At one time 
they spent the entire night from Maundy 
Thursday to Good' Friday meditating on the 
sufferings and death of Our Saviour. Our 
Blessed Lady rewarded them by appearing 
for a fifth time, and threw over each of them 
a dark robe, in commemoration of the deep 
sorrow which filled her heart that night. 
These apparitions proved a great comfort to 
our Saints. On the occasion of her sixth 



I 



156 The New Saints of 1888, 

appearance, the names of the saints appeared 
in letters of gold in Our Lady's Sanctuary at 
]Mt. Senario. The Blessed Virgin was pleased 
to end the work she had begun by a seventh 
miracle ; for seven years had our Saints 
spent their time on the summit of Senario in 
silence^ fasting, and prayer, meditating on 
the passion and death of Our Lord They 
had no thought of obtaining novices, much less 
of founding an Order, until at last the Mother 
of God made plain her wish in this respect. 
With much labor our pious hermits had 
cultivated a garden on the slope of the moun- 
tain, not for the sake of the profit to be de- 
rived from the sale of the fruit and vegetables, 
but in order that they might keep themselves 
busy and not fall into idleness. In one part 
of this garden they planted some vines, and 
here it was that they received a further evi- 
dence of God's designs in their regard. In 
the month of !March, while the whole country 
round was experiencing bitter cold weather, 
it happened that in one night one of these 
vines suddenly burst into blossom and in its 
luxuriance overspread a great part of the 
garden. The devout servants of Mary saw 
in this new wonder the hand of God. 



The Sainted Founders of the Servites, 157 

Monaldius, who was the first superior, com- 
pletely overcome with joy, hastened to the 
Bishop of Florence and told the story of the 
miraculous vine. But the Bishop was not 
surprised : he knew the story and the signi- 
ficance of the vine, for Our Blessed Lady had 
appeared to him the same night, shown him 
the wondrous vine^ and informed him that 
she wished this Order to be spread throughout 
the world. Our Saints could no longer doubt 
that they were called upon to found an Order, 
which they at once set about doing, calling 
it " The Servites," or Servants of Mary. 
Applicants for membership came in rapidly, 
and the Order daily grew in strength, realiz- 
ing the words of its Foundress to the Bishop : 
" As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant 
odor, and my flowers are the fruit of honor 
and riches." * 

By the advice of their bishop, the founders 
took the rules of St. Benedict, and for a habit 
adopted a dark robe with a cowl, and a scapu- 
lar of the same color as their dress. After, a 
year they were professed, made their solemn 
vows to their bishop, and six of them were 
ordained priests ; the seventh, Alexius Fal- 

* Ecclus. xxiv. 23. 



"is 8 The New Saints of 1888, 

coneriis, humbly concluded to remain a lay- 
brother all his life. He outlived all his 
brethren, reaching the age of a hundred and 
ten, seventy-seven years of which were passed 
in his Order. His age, his virtues, and his 
noble birth made him universally esteemed, 
and these, with his learning and talents, fitted 
him in an eminent degree for the highest 
honors of the Order, but he succeeded, as he 
wished, in avoiding all of these. Although 
his health was feeble, and served as an excuse 
for keeping him from the path which led to 
hon'or, it was only as a matter of obedience 
that he consented to take a little wine. He 
gradually acquired such a mastery over his 
affections and passions that it used to be said 
he had none. Still he was cheerful and filled 
wnth the joy of the Holy Ghost, but he was 
never seen to laughj and frequently shed tears 
at the altar. He was always the first to 
arrive in choir and the last to leave, even in 
his old age ; and he fulfilled all his other 
duties as punctiliously as if they were his sole 
occupation. In his relations with his neighbor 
he always kept in view his eternal salvation. 
So bright and winning were his manners that 
his company was much sought after, and he 



The Seven Founders of the Servites. 159 

exercised a powerful and beneficial influence 
on all with whom he came in contact. When 
about to die, the Infant Jesus Himself crowned 
him with a wreath of flowers, whose colors 
shone resplendent, and angels carried his pure 
soul to God. His mortal remains found a 
resting place on Senario, beside his six breth- 
ren who had gone before him. 

III. Across the Alps. 

The rules of the Order of Servites were 
actually formulated in the year 1268 by St. 
Philip Benitius, who is considered its second 
founder. He possessed in a great degree the 
gift of miracles and of prophecy, and great 
wonders are related by his contemporaries of 
his zeal and efforts. He extended the Order 
through France, whither he himself went, and 
carried the pilgrim's staff into Germany, where 
he was aided in his endeavors to spread his 
Order by Rudolph of Hapsburg, the founder 
of the House of Hapsburg, and himself a 
member of the Third Order of the Servants 
of Mary. St. Philip made several journeys to 
Germany, where his efforts in behalf of his 
Order were crowned with great success. In 
1 281 he convened a general chapter of the 



The New Samt^^ic 



Order at Viterbo, to which he invited Uguc- 
cionius and Sosteneis, the only remaining ones 
of the Founders who had become priests. 

These two Fathers soon returned to their 
beloved mountain, there to pass the few re- 
maining days in preparing peacefully for the 
much longed-for end. On one occasion they 
both distinctly heard a voice exclaim: " Grieve 
not, ye servants of God, for soon shall you 
rest from your labors." They both died at 
an advanced age, at the same hour, on May 
3d, 1282, at Senario. The same night St. 
Philip saw in a vision two dazzling white 
lilies that, freeing themselves from earth, 
soared up to heaven and there presented 
themselves, at it were, to Mary. The Saint 
understood the two lilies to mean the two 
Sainted Fathers whom the Blessed Virgin had 
taken to heaven. 

St. Philip Benitius was at once the second 
and the eighth founder of the Order. After 
his death the Order, which had suffered much 
persecution, found a footing in Poland and 
Holland. In France, the members assumed 
a white habit, whence the name " white 
cloaks " (Blanc Manteaux). Pope Honorius 
VI. granted the Servites, who were known 






The Seven Founders of the Servites, i6i 

also as the '' Brothers of the Passion of Christ 
of Ave Maria," many privileges, and greatly 
helped in extending the Order. In 1424 
Pope Martin V. granted them the privileges 
of Mendicants, which was confirmed, hundreds 
of years later on, by Pope Pius V. 

The discipline of the Order having become 
relaxed, Bernard of Ricciolini strove to re- 
vive some of its original severity ; thus it was 
the Hermit Servites came into existence. St. 
Juliana Falconieri is regarded as the Found- 
ress of the Third Order of Servites, to which 
Rudolph of Hapsburg, as has been already 
mentioned, belonged, though it was not con- 
firmed until the time of Pope Martin V. 

The Servites are divided into two branches, 
viz., the Observants and the Conventuals, and 
their general resides in Rome. 

The Fathers of the Order at Innsbruck 
publish a highly popular magazine, entitled 
Monatsrosen (Monthly Roses). 



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AND THE Seven Sainted Founders 

OF the Servites. 

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Bev. FRANCIS CIOLDIE, S. J., Rev. FatherSOLA, S.J., etc. 

With fotir full-page Illustrations. 
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Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort; BL 

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Xiouirdes: 

Its Inhabitants, Its Pilgrims, Its Miracles. 

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No Catholic who has studied carefully and thoroughly the 
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THE 



Most Holy Rosary 

IN 

Thirty-one MEDiTATums, Prayers. 
AND Examples, 

Suitable tor the Months of May and October. 

WITH 

^Srams at jHasf., jStbotions for Coiifcssion anJr 
^^ommuiuon, anij ot!)rr ^BraEcrs. 

Tr-\n5lated from the German of Rev. W. Cr.\mer, 

By Rev. EUGENE GRIMM, C.SS.R. 

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^' maroquette. - • • • 35 *' 



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special manner to ;he faithful, and to set apart the 
month of October for its observance. As it is 
essentially a prayer of Meditation, this little book 
has been prepared with a view to its consideration 
and practice in that form. It is divided into 
thirty-one Meditations, one for each day of the 
month, and will be Tourd suited either for public 
or private devotion. The ac^-hor trusts that it 
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40til Thousand.— Reduced from $3.50 to $2.00. 

*'Let theadorn;n':'n!;sor home be cua.^ce and holy pictures 
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Pastoral Letter oj the Third Plena, y Council of Baltimore, 

PICTORIAL 

With Reflections for Every Day in the Year. 

Compiled from "Butler's Lives" and other Approved 
Sources. To which are added XivCB Of tbe Bmerican 
Saints recently placed on the Calendar for the United 
States by Special Petition of the Third Plenary Council 

of Baltimore. And also Xives Of tbe Saints Canoni3eb 

in 1881 by His Holiness Pope Leo XIIL 

Edited by John Gilmary Shea, LL.D. 

Large 8vo. 538 pages, rich ink and gold side 

With nearly 400 Illustrations. 

Reduced Price, - - - - $2.00 



This. tUe cheapest and most attractive 
VSrork ])Ublislied, has been greatly admired by 

OUR HOLY FATHER, POPE LEO XIIL, 

who sent his special blessing to the publishers 

It has also received the warm approbation of the Arch- 
bishops and Bishops in every section of the country, and 
cannot be too highly recommended to Christian families 
as the 

Best Meading for the Home Circle. 

It offers in a compendious form the lives of many 
servants of God, forming, as it were, a book of daily 
meditations, and is embellished with nearly 

FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS, 
Including a beautiful frontispiece of the Holy Family 
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S^iic Ctr.:::-.?.::- i^iiition. 



Visits to the ^ 

Most Eoljj Sacrament I 

AND TD ^^' 

The Blessed Virgin Mary, 

For Everv Lav in tlie ^lontli. 
By ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI, 

Doctor of the Church. 
Edited by 

Rev. EUGENE GRIMM, 

Priest Of the Congregation of the ^fosi Holy Redeemer. 

Simo, ( lotli. - - - 50 cents. 
'• mrtnuiuette, ■ - 35 '" 



This entirely new edition cf Sr. Alphonsus' admirable 
little work is printed from new, large type, and is the most 
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Besides the "Visits", it contains a number of Prayers with 
Devotions for Mass. and fcr Confession and Communion. 

The "Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed 
Virgin" is thefi:st work St. Alphonsus published, and was 
issued in the year 1745. From its first appearence it met 
with marvellous success not only in Italy, but in Europe 
and throughout the whole Catholic world. During the life 
of the saintly author it was translated into nearly every 
language, a:. d now, after more than a centur\-, the reputa- 
tion that it has enjoyed, instead of diminishing, has ever 
increased. 

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Abandonment ; 



OR, 

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER OF SELF 

TO 

DIVINE PROVIDENCE* 
By Rev. J. P. CAUSSADE, S.J. 

Edited and Revised by Rev. H. Ramiere, S.J- 

Translated from the French by Miss ELLA McMAHON. 

32mo, Cloth, - . - 50Cts. 



Hand-book for Altar Societies 

AND GUIDE FOR SACRISTANS, 
And Others Having Ckarge of the Altar and Sanctuary. 

By a Member of an Altar Society. 

Published with the Imprimatur of the Right Rev. Francis 

McNeirny, D.D., Bishop of Albany. 

16mo, cloth, red e^ges, - - net, 75 cents. 

There are many pious hearts and willing hands in every 
congregation, ready to take charge of the Altar and Sanc- 
tuary, and prepare them for the various services and 
solemnities of religion. All they need is proper direction. 
Comparatively few congregations in this country are able 
to have religious communities to superintend the require- 
ments of the Altar and Sanctuary, and as our Altar Socie- 
ties are composed of ladies, willing, but inexperienced in 
this important work, it occurred to the author that a guide- 
book of practical suggestions and directions would be of 
great service in every parish. The book not only gives all 
necessary instruction concerning the preparations enjoined 
by the Rubrics for each and every service, but also treats of 
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the information requisite for the proper carrying out of tne 
Church Ceremonial. 

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MEDITATIONS ON THE 

Sufferings of Jesus Christ 

Translated from the Italian of 

Rev.FRANOISda PERINALDO, O.S.F., 
By a Member of the same Order, 

121110, Cloth, $1.25. 

i^his work, the original of which has run through four 
editions in a short time, is, according to an able critic, 
"good in thought, sentiment, and expression: the thought 
bemg just, solid, and conformable to Catholic teaching; 
the sentiment tender and devotional; the expression or 
language generally plain and unpretending, but, when 
occasion demands, rising to a dignity and pathos suited to 
the persons and subjects described." 

.11 tiiuxiu I uuiill 
Translated from the French of 

Rev. Father HUGUET, Marist. 

32mo, Cloth, $1.00. 

The pious and learned author of this work offers it in 
the hope that the touching traits of the goodness and pow- 
er of St. Joseph, herein set forth, may inspire all who read 
with unlimited confidence in the intercession of this blessed 
Patriarch, who enjoyed the happiness of passing thirty 
years in the intimate society of the Mother of Divine Mercy 
and of the Son of Gc^d come down from Heaven to redeem us. 




For Every Day of the Year, 

Translated from the French by Miss Margaret A, Colton. 

Witn a Steel-plate Frontispiece. 
S2mo, Cloth, - - - - 50 Ct^. 

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The Glories of Divine Grace. 

A free rendering of the original treatise of P. 

EUSEBIUS NiEKEMBEkG, S.J. 

By Dr. Nl. JOS. SCHEKBKM. 

Translated from the fourth revised German edition, ov a 
BENEDICTLNE MONK of St. Meinrad's Abbey, Ind., 
with the consent of the Author and the permission 
of the Superior. 
12mo, cloth, - - $1.50 
The b ok. treats of the nature of grace ; of the sub- 
lime and incomprehensible union with God, to which grace 
l^ids us ; of the effects and fruits of grace ; of some other 
effects and prerogatives of divine grace ; and of the acquisi- 
tion, exercise, increase and preservation of grace. It is 'A 
mine of the richest inaterial for sermons, catechism and 
the confessional, and will also prove highly valuable to 
both religious and pious people in the world. 

Little Cofflpliments of tlie Season. 

Simple Verses for Name-days, Birthdays, Christmas New- 
Year, and other festive and social occasions. With 
numerous and appropriate illustrations. 
By ELEANOR C. DONNELLV 
16mo, cloth, ink and gold. $1,0 



Life of St. Germaine Cousin. 

The Shepherd Maiden of Pibrac 

Translated from the French by a SISTER OF MERCY. 
With a Frontispiece, 16mo, clotli, 50 cents. 

Mm Gfaiiis troiii ''GolJeii Sands." 



A series of six leaflets, compr sing : A Thought for 

the New Year — Litany of Goodness and Devotion — 

To make triends — Our Mother Mary— Sanctifi- 

cation — The Sacred Heart. 

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Month of the Dead ; 

OR, 

PROMPT AND EASY DELIVERANCE OF 
THE SOULS IN PURGATORY. 

Translated from the French of 

THE ABBE CLOQUET, 

Honorary Canon, Apostolic Missionary and Late 
Vicar-General, 

BY A SISTER OF MERCY. 

Approved by the Sacred Congregation and by 

His Lordship, the Archbishop of Boiirges, and 

His Grace J the Archbishop of New York. 



With a steel-plate Frontispiece. 32mo, clotli, 75 cents. 

This little book is particularly rich in Indul- 
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SECOND, REVISED EDITION. 

The Life of Father Jogues, 

Missionary Priest of the Society of Jesus. Slain by the 
Mohawk Iroquois, in the present State of New York, Oct. 
18. 1646. By Father FELIX MARTIN, SJ. With Father 
Jogues' Account of the Captivity and Deatli of his Com- 
panion, Rene (joupil, slain Sept. 29, 1642. Translated from 
the French by JOKN GILMARY SHEA. With a Portrait, 
and a Map of the Mohawk Country by Gen. John S.Clark, 
12fno, cloth, $1.00. 



I 



'*.... A most interesting history of the life ana death 
of a deeply religious and devoted man." — The Sun. 

" It is impossible for any one of any church, or 

not of any, to read the life now presented, without being 
filled with admiration of so bright and beautiful a 
character." — Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

" There is no man, however learned, who will not 

be benefited by reading a record of a missionary so coura- 
geous, of a martyr so faithful to the last," — London Tablet, 

"... .Interesting as a romance, especially for Ameri- 
cans." — New YorTc Free'm,an' s Journal. 

'* Dr. John Gilmaky Shea, has not only carefully 

edited it, but has also added invaluable notes drawn from 
his own vast store-house of knowledge, concerning the 
early history of America."— The Catholic Mirror. 

"... The romance of religious heroism in its most 
attractive form is here displayed." — The Catholic World, 

''....There is no brighter page of heroism in American 
history than the record of the Catholic missionaries who 
were slain on account of their faith in the Mohawk 
country."— Catholic Universe. 

"... As a record of the most exalted Christian heroism, 
is full of interest." — Liverpool Catholic Times and 
Catholic Opinion. 

" The style Is of that dignified simplicity which is 

alone tolerable with so lofty a theme.'"-27ie Month, London. 

*' ... Furnishes interesting reading even to non-Cath- 
olics." — Catholic Exanmier. 

"... It is a very interesting biography." — Western 
Watchman. 

" Narrates without the slightest shade even of rhet- 
orical embellishment or exaggeration the heroic labors, 
suffering, firm faith and devotion to God of Fatb*^r Jogues 
and his companion." — CatlioUc Standard. 

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Volumes 1 to 11 now ready. 

THE CENTENARY EDITION. 

ASCETICAL WORKS OF SLALPHONSIS 

18 vols,. Price, per vol., net, $1.25, 

Each book complete in itself, — any volume sold separately. 

Vol. I. Preparation for Death ; or, Considerations oa 
the Eternal Truths. Maxims of Eternity — Rule of Life. 

Vol. II. Way of Salvation and of Perfection : Medi- 
tations. Pious Reflections. Spiritual Treatises. 

Vol. III. Great Means of Salvation and of Perfec- 
tion : Prayer. Mental Prayer. The Exercises of a 
Retreat. Choice of a State of Life, and the Vocatiott 
to the Religious State and to the Priesthood. 

Vol. IT., v., yi. The ^^rvsTERiEs of the Faith: i. In- 
carnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ. 2. The 
Redemption, Passion and Death ot Jesus Christ. 3. 
The Holy Eucharist, Sacrifice, and Sacred Heart of 
Jesus Christ. Practice ot Love of Jesus Christ. No- 
vena to the Holy Ghost. 

Vol. VII., VIII. Glories of ^Iary: i. Explanation of the 
Salve Regina^ or Hail, Holy Queen. Discourses on the 
Feasts of Mary. 2. Her Dolors. Her Virtues. Prac- 
tices. Examples. Answers to Critics — Devotion to the 
Holy Angels. Devotion to ^t. Jos ph. Novena to St. Te- 
resa. Novena for the Repose of the Souls in Purgatory. 

Vol.IX. Victories of the Martyrs; or, The Lives of 
the Most Celebrated Martyrs of the Church. 

Vol. X., XI. The True Spouse of Jesus Christ : i. The 
first sixteen Chapters. 2. The last eight Chapters. 
Appendix and various small Works. Spiritual Letters. 

Vol. XII. Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer : 
Rule.Instructionsabout the Religious State. Letters and 
Circulars. Lives of two Fathers and of a Lay-brother. 

VoL XIII. Dignity and Duties of the Priest: A Col- 
lection of Material for Ecclesiastical Retreats. Rule- 
of Life and Spiritual Rules. 

Vol. XIV. The Holy Mass ; Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 
Ceremonies of the Mass. Preparation and Thanks- 
giving. The Mass and the Office that are hurriedly said. 

Vol. XV. The Divine Office ; Translation of the Psalms 
and Hymns. 

Vol. XVI. Preaching : The Exercises of the Missions. 
Various Counsels. Instructions on the Commandments 
and Sacraments. 

^"ol. XVII. Sermons for the Sundays. 

^oL XVIII. Various Small Works: Discourses on Calam- 
ities. Reflections useful for Bishops. Seminaricfc. 
Ordinances. Letters. General Alphabetical Index. 

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t 



FIBIOLI? 

OR, 

The Churcli of the Catacomhs, 

BY 

HIS EMmENSE EiRDINiL WISEMM. 

A Historica.1 Picture of The Sufferings of 
tiie Early Ghurcli in Pagan Rome. 

Illustrating the Glories of the Christian Martyrs as 
exemplified in the lives of the fair young Virgin- 
Martyr, St. Agnes ; the heroic Soldier, St. 
Sebastian ; the devoted Youth, St. 
Pancratius ; the holy Priest 
Dionysius, etc. 

IliLiUBTRATEI) EDITION. 

WITH A PREFACE BY 

Rev. RICHARD BRENNAN, LL.D., 

Pastor of St. Rose of Li7iia' s Churchy New York. 

An exquisite, artistic Chromo- 
Frontispiece. 

Original Illustrations by the Eminent Artists Yan Dar- 

GENT and Joseph Blanc and numerous Engravings 

descriptive of the Catacombs and of the Manners 

and Customs of the Early Romans, Ornamental 

Initials, and Emblematic Tail-pieces. 

32 large full-page Engravings, 

24 of them printed with a tint, and introducing an en- 
tirely novel effect. 

Large Svo, GT4 pages, 

(loth, Artistic Design 011 side in fJold aiwl Ink, $6.00 
'" " '* '^ ** gilC iMlges, $7.50 



SaGPed ieapti 

For the First Friday of every Month. 

IVanslaied from the French of P. HUGUET, Marist, 

By a Sister of Mercy. 

Cloth, red edges. With Steel-plate Frontispiece, 
40 cents. 

Besides the principal feast of the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus, which occurs but once during the year, 
pious souls consecrate to this devotion, in a spirit of 
reparation, the tirst Friday of each month. 



Year of the Sacred Heart 

A Thought for Every Day 
of the Year. 

Drawn from the Works of Pere de laColumbiere, of Blessed 
Margaret Mar>', and of others. 

From the French by Miss ANNA T. SADLIER. 

32nio, cloth. With Steel-plate Frontispiece, 
50 cents. 

It is not possible, O faithful souls who read these 
touching words proceeding from the Heart of your 
loving Saviour, that you can remain insensible to 
the invitation that He extends to you to repair the 
outrages heaped upon His love. 

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SIXTH EDITION NOW READY! 

Catholic Christianity 
^ Modern Unbelief. 

A plain and brief statement of the real doctrines of 
the Roman Catholic Church as opposed to those falsely- 
attributed to her, by Christians who reject her authori- 
ty, and by unbelievers in Revelation ; that thus a Con- 
trast may be easily drawn between the "■ Faith once 
delivered to the Saints," and the conflicting Theories, 
and Scientific Guesses of the present Age ; and serving- 
as a Retutatioii to the assaults of modern Infidelitv. 
By the Right Kev. J. D. KKARDS, D.D.. Bishop of 
Retimo, and Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern Vicariate 
of the Cape Colony. i2mo. Cloth, . net. $i.oo 

This iisefnU practical, and fascinating work, which has 
met with a sale seldom accorded a Catholic book, has just 
been 

Honored by the following Letter from the Holy Father: 
LKO. Pr^. XIII. 

Venerable Brother, Health and apostolical benediction. 
Thy active spirit in the discharge of thy pastoral duties, 
and thy zeal in guarding and defending the Catholic Faith 
in those distant regions are known to us. Nevertheless, joy- 
fully do we receive the new proof of the same which thou 
hast lately manifested to us, as well in thy most loving 
letter, which testifies to thy remarkable devotion to the 
Apostolic See, as also in the copy of the Volume just pub- 
lished by thee, named " Catholic Christianity and Modern 
Unbelief." We, in our turn, testify by this our letter oiix 
affectionate and grateful disposition towards thee, Vener- 
able Brother, and pray that God may give fruit to thy 
writings and labors for the salvation of souls. And, as a 
token of this favor, we most lovingly bestow on thee, 
Venerable Brother, and on all the faithful whom thou rulest 
by thy Vicarious Apostolical authority, our Apostolical 
Benediction. 

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, 14th day of April, 1885, 
in the eighth year of our pontificate. 

LEO P P XIII. 

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SECOND EDITION. 

Alcthcid *, or, The Outspoken Trutli 

On the All-important question of Divine AuthoritatiTe 
Teacliiiiff. An exposition of the Catholic rule of faith, 

contrasted with the various Theories of Private and 
Fallible Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, with a 
Full Explanation of the Whole Question of Infallibility, 
and Application of the Principle to the Development 
of Catholic Doctrine, according to the needs of the 
times. By the Riffht Rev. J. D. RICARDS, D.D., 
Bishop of Retimo, and Vicar-Apostolic of the Eastern 
Vicariate of ^ the Cape Colony. Dedicated by per- 
mission to His Eminence Cardinal Manning. 

limo, cloth, . . nety 80 cents. 



•• All able and vigorous exposition of the Catholic 

rule of faith. The book absolutely bristles >vith informa- 
tion adapted to reception by almost any class of intellect, 

and so stated that it cannot fail to be both interesting and 
delightful to all...." — T/ie Catholic Union a?id Times ^ 
Buffalo. 

"That Bishop Ricards Is eminently the man to Tvrite 
such a book will be admitted by all who have read his 
* Catholic Christianity and JNIodern Unbelief.' " — The Piloty 
Boston. 

*' A perusal of 'Aletheia' will convince the most 

sceptical that it is just the book so much needed ; one to 
set men thinkinar, and yet one that >vill be read by many 
ivho would not open the ablest work in the lanffuage that 
treated religious and social questions in the ordinary way." 
TJie Monitor ^ San Francisco. 

*'. . .We welcome * Aletheia' as a work likely to be read 
with profit by many for whom most other books of relig- 
ious instruction, though excellent in their way, would be 
apt to have little attraction." — The Ave Maria. 

" It presents in a masterly manner the Catholic rule 

of faith In point of style, the work bears evidence of 

literary povvers greatly above the ayerage. " — The Republic^ 
Boston. . "^ 

'' DecHcated to the Cardinal Archbishop of West- 
minster, it is in many places inspired by His Eminence's 
writings, and in all harmonious with them. But it takes 
a place of its o^vn in charitable and sincere controversy."— 
The Weekly Register^ London, England. 

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THE MONTH OF THE 

Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Devotions for Every Day of the Month. 

With Suitcible Prayers and a Metlioa of Hearing Mass 
in Jiouor of the Sacred liearl. 

Translated from the sixteenth Frencli edition of 

Rev. FATHER HUGUET, Marist, 

By A Sister of Aiercy. 

32mo, cloth, with a Steel-plate Frontispiece,. . . 75 ets. 



This delightful work of the renowned Father Huguet has 
passed through numerous editions in France, and been trans- 
lated into many languages. It contains a Meditation for 
every day of the month, followed by a practical example il- 
lustrating some passage in the life of a Saint cr other Serv- 
ant of God, with a Practice and an Ejaculation. There is 
also a special Meditation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart; 
Prayers for Mass and for Holy Comnninion ; a ISovena, a 
Litany, etc., and as the book is arranged for thirty-one 
days, it can also be appropriately used for the month of July, 
which is consecrated to the Precious Plood. As ilie work is 
written with special reference to interior souls and to reli- 
gious persons who by their vocation are calkd to i iT.ci'^e the 
Evangelical Counsels, the author sets forth plainly the way 
of perfection as founded upon the pure doctrine of the Gos- 
pel, that is to say, upon Christian Mortification and the life 
of Jesus within us. 

o 

The Little Month of May, 

Followed by Prayers and a Short Method of 

Assisting at Mass. 

Translated from the French of the j4iithor of "Golden 

Sands" by Miss Ella McMahon. 

32mo, maroquette, gilt, 25 cts. 

Of all the '^Months" of May published, this is one of the 
most delightful. Made up of simple thoughts joyfully written 
under the patronage of the Blessed Mother of God it will 
appeal directly to every pious soul. 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York, Cincinna': and rhicairo. 



65 til Xliousaiid. 

Catholic Belief: 

Or A. Short and Simple Exposition of Catholic Doc- 
trine. By the Very Rev, Joseph Faa di Bruno, D.D. 
American Edition edited by Kev. Louis A. Lambert, 
author of '^ Notes on Ingersoil,"etc, With the Im- 
primatur of Their Eminences the late Cardinal, Arch- 
bishop of New York, and the Cardinal, Archbishop of 
Westminster, and an Litroduction by the Right Rev. 
S. V. Ryan, Bishop of Buffalo. 

16mo, flexible cloth, 40 cents. 

10 copies, $2. Co.— 50 copies, $12.00,-100 copies, $20.00. 

Extra cloth, red edges, 75 cents. 

An admirable book of instruction on Christian Doctrine 
for both Catholics and Protestants. Short, clear, simple, 
and concise it meets the needs of a numerous class of non- 
Catholics, who yearning after Truth, unsettled in their 
convictions, sincere in their inquiries, and curious to know 
just uhat Ciitholics do believe, have neither leisure nor 
inclination to pore over large volumes or study elaborate 
dogmatical treatises. The author evinces rare ability and 
tact in setting forth Catholic principles in a fe>y Tvords, 
with ivinn ilia: simplicity and yet scholastic accuracy, but 
entire freedom from anything irhiih might give offence 
to any one, without, however, compromising or disguising^ 
the truth. The book is just the one to put in the hands 
of a Protestant friend, confident that Catholic faith will 
more readily reach the soul and bring conviction to the 
understanding, when Catholic charity has won the heart 
and favorably predisposed the will. 
o 

Catholic Home Almanac. 

A Charniing Annual for Calholics. 

Single copies, 25 cents; per dozen, $2.00. 

fare, wholesome reading for the Home Circle, of interest 
to young and old. 
A Choice Collection of Prose and Verse, embracing Short 
Stories — humorous and pathetic— Poems, Historical and 
Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Statistics, Astronomical 
Calculations, etc., with numerous beautiful illustrations and 
the Calendars for the months printed in blade and redr 
Oiling It ju>t the book for winter evenings. 

BENZIGE.R BROTHERS, New York, Cincinnati, and Ch!cag:o. 



'• We do not sufficiently remember our dead.-- 

S^. Francis de Sal^s, 

A New Book by the Author of' Golden Sands." 

Little Month of the Souls in Purgatory. 

Translated from the French by 

MISS ELLA McMAHON. 

.Supplemented by many Prayers for the Suffering 

Souls, A Rosary, A Way of the Cross, and 

A Manner of Hearing Mass for the 

Souls in Purgatory. 



32mo, Black Maroquette, Silver Stamps on side, 35 cents. 

This Httie book is a series of pious thoughts on our re- 
lations with the souls of our beloved dead. 

By way of introduction will be found a brief exposition 
of the doctrine of the Catholic Church on the subject of 
Purgatory. On this doctrine is based every thought of the 
work, which therefore appeals more directly and con-, 
fidently to the pious souls for whom it is specially written. 

The author's aim is particularly to console, to 
strengthen, and to lead to God souls cast down, 
discouraged, and sometimes, alas ! estranged from God 
by the death of loved ones, — souls of insufficient faith, un- 
able to raise their eyes to heaven and behold those who 
have gone from them eternally happy with God, or await- 
ing a speedy entrance into eternal happiness. He seeks to 
soothe their grief, and help them to find again in spiritual 
intercourse with their dead that calmness and strength 
which enable us to endure life, to continue in the perform- 
ance of our duty, and to fit ourselves to rejoin our oved 
ones in heaven, whither they are calling and awaiting us. 

fiENZlGER BROTHERS, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. 



OUr^ BlI^THDAY BOUQUBIP. 



Cloth, gold and ink side, $1.00. 



The present work is a happy idea happily carried 
out. Unlike the many ** birthday-books " it is not 
made up exclusively of selections from the poets 
and prose-writers of our language, but contains 

1. Brief biographical sketches of the Saints 

and Servants of God, for every day of 
the year ; 

2. Choice selections, for every day, from our 

best Poets, —Catholic authors being 
largely represented ; 

3. A daily Christian practice. 

It thus unites the choicest flowers from the 
shrines of God's servants with the purest and 
most fragrant blossoms from the haunts of the 
children of Song, bound together by the golden 
chain of Our Lady's feasts. 

For the Catholic it possesses the advantage of 
suggesting not only the commemoration of his anni- 
versary day, but the more Christian practice of 
honoring the feast of his patron Saint — the day of 
his birth in grace, by the holy waters of Baptism. 



BENZIGER B80:HlRS, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. 



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